Department for Transport

North Sea: Offshore Suppliers

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the Brazilian government's enforcement of domestic cabotage legislation on the offshore supply sector in the North Sea.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The UK Government's strong preference is to encourage free trade and liberalization of cabotage wherever possible, in the broad interests of international trade and economic growth. So far as I am aware, the Brazilian Government's decision has no significant direct effect on the offshore supply sector in the North Sea, and there is no intention to amend cabotage rules in relation to that sector. However, the Government does recognize the present pressures upon the North Sea oil and gas sector and, on his recent visit to Aberdeen, my Rt Hon Friend the Prime Minister set out an action plan for a set of measures including a £1.3bn package of tax measures for the oil and gas industry to ensure the UK Continental Shelf remains an attractive destination for investment and a £20M package of investment in exploration, innovation and skills, as well as the new City Deal for Aberdeen itself.

Bus Services

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with which private bus operators his Department has discussed the planned Buses Bill.

Andrew Jones: The Department for Transport held a series of seven bus reform workshops, in five locations (Birmingham, London, Leeds, Manchester and Bristol) in September and October 2015. The workshops were attended by bus operators and other interested stakeholders to share their views on the Buses Bill. We have also had detailed discussions with the Confederation of Passenger Transport (CPT) and the Association of Local Bus Company Managers (ALBUM). Information about the bus reform workshops including a list of organisations represented have been published by the department. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/bus-reform-workshops-background-information

Railways: Repairs and Maintenance

Caroline Ansell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with Network Rail on improved responsiveness for emergency repairs; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry: I have regular discussions with senior Network Rail and rail industry colleagues about the need to improve performance across the network, which includes improving the recovery time from incidents. I have been paying particular attention to performance on the Govia Thameslink Railway network, and response times are being reviewed with the operator and Network Rail colleagues in order to improve response times when possible.

Railways: Compensation

Caroline Ansell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what discussions he has had with train operating companies on improving the claim process for compensation for delays; and if he will make a statement.

Claire Perry: We urge passengers to claim the compensation they are entitled to. When delays occur, we expect operators to make sure their passengers are informed about how to apply for compensation. We are committed to improving compensation for delayed rail passengers. As the Chancellor stated in his Autumn Statement, we are committed to reducing the time threshold for which passengers can claim from 30 minutes to 15 minutes. We welcome the trial by c2c of automatic compensation to be introduced on the c2c franchise for registered customers if their train is delayed by more than 2 minutes. We welcome the introduction of automatic compensation on Advance tickets bought online, currently available on Virgin Trains West Coast and to be introduced as part of the Northern and TPE franchises and we encourage operators to make sure passengers across the country benefit from schemes like this.

Aviation: Fares

Mike Freer: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effect on the price of airline tickets of the falling price of oil.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The recent drop in crude oil price would not have the same effect in aviation as it does in, for example, petrol stations. It is common practice in aviation industry to purchase aviation fuel in advance by entering into long-term hedging contracts, which are designed to provide stability to the industry from short-term price fluctuations. Should the current trend in the cost of oil prove long-term, it is likely to have an effect on ticket prices in the future in a highly competitive industry.

Taxis

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to address the congestion and air quality impacts of increases in numbers of private hire vehicles.

Andrew Jones: Licensing private hire vehicles and local traffic management are matters for local authorities. In London responsibility rests with the Mayor and Transport for London.

Taxis

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has recently made of the effectiveness of taxi and private hire vehicle regulations relating to passenger safety.

Andrew Jones: At the request of the Department for Transport, the Law Commission has undertaken a comprehensive review of taxi and private hire regulation in England and Wales. The Department instructions included requiring the review to focus on passenger safety. The Government is currently considering all the recommendations in the Law Commission’s report and will formally respond to the Law Commission and announce its intentions once this scrutiny is completed.

Taxis: Greater London

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to Transport for London's press release of 20 January 2016, TfL sets out plans to modernise and enhance London's private hire industry, what representations he has received from the Mayor of London on the introduction of legislation that would enable TfL to restrict overall numbers of private hire drivers and vehicles.

Andrew Jones: We receive representations on a range of issues from the Mayor of London. The Government supports choice for consumers, and wants to see both taxis and private hire vehicles prosper in London and elsewhere. The Government is prepared to continue discussing various options with the Mayor but does not believe legislation allowing him to cap the number of private hire vehicles is warranted.

Southern

Nusrat Ghani: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of the revenue raised by Southern Rail in the last five years was passed back to GTR by his Department.

Claire Perry: Under the terms of its Franchise Agreement, Southern Railway Limited retained all of its revenue. The services operated by Southern Railway Limited were combined into a new franchise, the Govia Thameslink Railway franchise, on 26 July 2015 when the previous franchise ended. No Southern Railway revenue has been passed back to GTR by the Department for Transport.

Cycling and Walking

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what estimate his Department has made of the level of planned investment by local enterprise partnerships in cycling and walking infrastructure through the local growth fund.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Department estimates that an investment of at least £270m is planned for cycling infrastructure and an investment of at least £250m is planned for walking infrastructure, totalling at least £520m across the current Growth Deal period. This figure is derived from self-reported figures provided by Local Enterprise Partnerships to the Department in January 2016; the final figure for spend is therefore likely to be higher.

North Sea: Offshore Suppliers

Richard Burden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment he has made of the effect of the low oil price since summer 2014 on the number of UK seafarers employed on offshore supply vessels in the North Sea.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The 2015 seafarer statistics have just been published. We estimate that there were 23,380 UK seafarers active at sea in 2015, an increase of 2 per cent on the previous year. We are aware that the current downturn in the offshore sector may not yet be fully reflected in these figures.

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Tulip Siddiq: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what representations his Department has received on the protection of hedgehogs in Regent's Park from trucks using the London Zoo car park for the construction of High Speed 2.

Mr Robert Goodwill: 12 petitions to the 3rd additional provision to the Phase One hybrid Bill were received that included concerns regarding the impact on the hedgehog population in Regent’s Park of the proposed lorry holding area in the London Zoo car park. Additionally, one of the responses to the AP3 Environmental Statement Consultation raised concerns about the hedgehog population in the Regents Park area. As part of the ongoing engagement with the Zoological Society of London, HS2 Ltd are considering locations for replacement habitats to mitigate the impact on the hedgehog population.

A591

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many representations he has received on reopening the A591.

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make funds available to expedite the process of reopening the A591 in Cumbria.

Mr Robert Goodwill: The Government has received a number of representations to help repair the A591 damaged by the recent Storms, including a request for assistance from Cumbria County Council, the local highway authority, who is ultimately responsible for the management and maintenance of the road. The Secretary of State for Transport announced on 27 December 2015 the Department for Transport would be providing £40 million to help rebuild vital local highway infrastructure in Cumbria and Lancashire damaged by the recent storms, including the damaged section of the A591. This announcement built on the government’s earlier provision of up to £2 million in the initial aftermath of the severe wet weather to enable Cumbria and Lancashire authorities to carry out an initial assessment of what repairs were required to roads and bridges. A follow up announcement regarding the A591 was made on 14 January 2016 which highlighted that Highways England, along with their contractors, has been brought in to deliver a full and permanent reinstatement of the road as quickly as possible. Further information is in the following weblink: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/transport-secretary-announces-plans-to-reopen-a591-in-cumbria-following-storm-desmond-and-eva

Volkswagen

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions the Vehicle and Certification Agency has had with Volkswagen on the funding of the vehicle retesting programme.

Andrew Jones: On the 10 November the Secretary of State announced an Emissions Testing Programme to look for “defeat devices” and improve our understanding of the real world emissions performance of vehicles used in the UK. This investigation is vital in restoring public confidence. To ensure the independence of the testing, the Department is funding the programme and neither the cars nor the testing facilities will be provided by the vehicle industry themselves. Ongoing testing of VW Group vehicles outside the Department for Transport Emissions Testing Programme and for which the Vehicle Certification Agency is the approval authority (Skoda), will be funded by the manufacturer on a case by case basis.

British Transport Police

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to page 2 of the actions of the meeting of the Rail Delivery Group National Taskforce of 30 September 2015, what the effect of the Autumn Statement and Spending Review 2015 is on the funding of the British Transport Police.

Claire Perry: Funding for the British Transport Police is not derived directly from a specific Government grant but from holders of police service agreements. However, during the recent spending review, the Department has made clear to the British Transport Police Authority that it considers that appropriate efficiencies should be identified and made. However, it has also emphasised that any efficiencies should not materially impact on the operational policing capability of the British Transport Police, including in relation to counter-terrorist activity.

Uber

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many meetings Ministers and officials of his Department have had with representatives of Uber since July 2015.

Andrew Jones: Details of Ministerial meetings with external organisations are published on a quarterly basis and are available via the gov.uk website. Since July 2015, representatives of Uber have had one meeting with Department for Transport officials.

Railways: Tickets

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 2 February 2016 to Question 24477, which railway stations in which regions are fitted with ITSO-compliant smartcard readers.

Claire Perry: Further to the answer to Question 24477 the attached tables list railway stations by region that are fitted with ITSO-compliant smartcard readers. The table contains 710 rail stations – this is 8 fewer than the previous answer, because in the answer provided to the Hon. member on 2nd February, three stations operated by more than one train operator were split into multiple entries and the five stations in addition to Gatwick Airport that were involved in January’s extension of Oyster were also listed twice. This duplication has been removed.



List of Railways Stations in Eng fitted with ITSO
(Word Document, 24.51 KB)

Office of Rail and Road

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he expects his Department's review of the Office of Rail and Road to conclude.

Claire Perry: The Rail Regulation Call for Evidence which was published on GOV.UK on 10 December 2015 stated that the project would be ‘run in parallel with the Shaw Report and conclude by March 2016’.

Southern: Performance Standards

Peter Kyle: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many passengers submitted Delay/Repay claims to Southern Railway in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13, (d) 2013-14 and (e) 2014-15.

Claire Perry: The Department does not hold the information requested. However, we will continue to push operators to ensure passengers are aware of compensation arrangements and claim where entitled to do so under the Delay/Repay scheme as set out on the Southern’s website: https://www.southernrailway.com/your-journey/customer-services/delay-repay/delay-repay-form.

Railways: Tickets

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the minutes of the meeting of the Rail Delivery Group of 22 December 2015, whether the letter outlining the Government's expectations on ticketing referred to in that document has been sent.

Claire Perry: I wrote to the Rail Delivery Group on 2nd February 2016, seeking views on how the rail industry intends to meet the Government’s expectations on ticketing, which I outlined in a speech on 26th January. My letter to the Rail Delivery Group is attached, and a web link to my speech, is set out below. https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/the-death-of-the-tangerine-ticket?dm_t=0,0,0,0,0



Letter from Rail Minister to Rail Delivery Group
(PDF Document, 2.89 MB)

Home Office

Immigration Controls

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times Warnings Index checks have been suspended (a) in the UK, (b) at each port, (c) at each airport and (d) nationally in each of the last five years.

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many suspensions of the Secure ID checks took place (a) in the UK, (b) at each port and (c) at each airport in each of the last five years.

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many suspensions of terrorist warning index checks took place without a reason for that suspension in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire: In November 2011, the then Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration found that the then UKBA had carried out a number of suspensions of Warnings Index Checks without due ministerial authority. Since then, Border Force has operated to a Ministerially-approved mandate that requires it to undertake Warnings Index Checks against all passengers arriving into the UK on scheduled, commercial routes; and Secure ID Checks against passengers that require a visa to enter the UK. These checks have not been suspended at any port since November 2011.

UK Border Force: Staff

Andy Burnham: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many staff there were in the UK Border Force and its predecessor in (a) 2009-10, (b) 2010-11, (c) 2011-12, (d) 2012-13, (e) 2013-14, (f) 2014-15 and (g) 2015-16; and what the UK Border Force's planned total staff complement is for 2016-17.

Mrs Theresa May: Holding answer received on 22 January 2016



The Border Force workforce is drawn from two precursor organisations: Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the Immigration Service. Border Force was established in its current form in March 2012 and since that time the workforce has ranged from approximately 7800 – 8100 in full-time equivalents.The detailed breakdown requested is as follows (all figures are full-time equivalents): March 2010 4506 – UKBA4639 – HMRC (transferred to UKBA 1st April 2010)March 2011 8269 – UKBAMarch 2012 7846 – Border ForceMarch 2013 8123 – Border ForceMarch 2014 8044 – Border ForceMarch 2015 8153 – Border Force Workforce numbers for FY16/17 have not yet been finalised.

Welfare in Detention of Vulnerable Persons Review

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will publish a response to each of the recommendations made in Stephen Shaw's Review into the Welfare in Detention of Vulnerable Persons, Cm 9186, before Report Stage on the Immigration Bill in the House of Lords.

James Brokenshire: Holding answer received on 22 January 2016



The Government’s position on the Stephen Shaw review was set out in the Written Ministerial Statement laid on 14 January 2016.The Government accepts the broad thrust of Mr Shaw’s recommendations. In particular the Government accepts Mr Shaw’s recommendations to adopt a wider definition of those at risk, including victims of sexual violence, individuals with mental health issues, pregnant women, those with learning difficulties, post-traumatic stress disorder and elderly people, and to recognise the dynamic nature of vulnerabilities. We will introduce a new “adult at risk” concept into decision-making on immigration detention with a clear presumption that people who are at risk should not be detained, building on the existing legal framework.A more detailed mental health needs assessment in immigration removal centres, using the expertise of the Centre for Mental Health, will be carried out and is expected to report in March 2016. NHS commissioners will use that assessment to consider and revisit current provision to ensure healthcare needs are being met appropriately. The Government will also publish a joint Department of Health, NHS and Home Office mental health action plan in April 2016.We will also be considering a number of operational recommendations made by Mr Shaw, on a case by case basis, taking account of available resources.

Clearsprings Group

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many complaints her Department has received regarding services provided under contract by Clearsprings from (a) service users and (b) external parties in each of the last six years.

James Brokenshire: Holding answer received on 28 January 2016



Within the terms of the contracts for asylum accommodation the accommodation provider is required to respond to and address complaints from service users and external parties in the first instance. Where a service user or external party is dissatisfied with the response or the measures taken to address their complaint, the complainant may escalate the issue to the Home Office.In the years 2010 to 2015 the Home Office has received 60 complaints in total regarding services provided under contract by Clearsprings Ready Homes, broken down by each of the last six years as follows:Year No. of complaints2010 02011 02012 02013 12014 02015 59The complaints have not been categorised to distinguish whether the complainant was a service user or external party.On receipt, each complaint is considered, investigated and addressed. If after investigation the Home Office determines that a complaint demonstrates a failure of the contractor to comply with the required standards and the contractor fails to address the complaint there are a range of contractual sanctions that the Home Office can and do impose.The Home Office is working with contractors to undertake profiling and trend analysis of complaints, including why there was an increase in 2015. The Home Office is also assessing whether the existing channels are sufficiently capturing service user and external party concerns.

Action Fraud

Jack Dromey: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what discussions officials from her Department have had with the City of London Police on the performance of Action Fraud in the last 12 months.

Mr John Hayes: Holding answer received on 28 January 2016



The City of London Police (CoLP) is subject to ongoing scrutiny, in terms of both performance and financial management of the Action Fraud and the National Fraud Intelligence Bureau capabilities; this is an explicit condition of the funding arrangements. CoLP is also subject to a Ministerially approved improvement plan, which is overseen by officials, who meet CoLP on a regular basis to monitor progress and to ensure delivery.We have seen significant improvement in performance; official figures show reports of fraud have trebled since Action Fraud was rolled out nationally, addressing the concern that fraud was an underreported crime type. The number of crime packages disseminated to local forces to consider investigation has also increased significantly, raising from around 40,000 in 13/14 to 75,000 in 14/15.

Detention Centres

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions she has visited an Immigration Removal Centre since becoming Home Secretary.

James Brokenshire: The Home Secretary and Home Office Ministers conduct visits, and host meetings, on the whole spectrum of Home Office business regularly. As with the previous administration, it is our policy not to provide details of such visits.

Animal Experiments: Licensing

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to paragraph 12 of Advice Note: 05/2015 on the Harm-Benefit Analysis Process, how many project licence applications were withdrawn at the (a) concept and (b) draft stage as a result of advice from the Animals in Science Regulation Unit that the application would clearly fail the harm-benefit analysis in each year since 2012.

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, with reference to Advice Note: 05/2015, paragraph 9 of the Harm-Benefit Analysis Process, how many project licences applications under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 were recommended by the Animals and Science Regulation Unit in each year since 2012.

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many project licence applications under the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986 were (a) granted and (b) not granted on the basis of the harm-benefit analysis.

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times she rejected the recommendations of the Animals in Science Regulation Unit for project licences in each year since 2012.

Angela Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many times project licence applications were referred to an independent assessor in each year since 2012.

Mr John Hayes: The Harm-Benefit Analysis (HBA) is undertaken, on behalf of the Secretary of State, by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit inspectors, all of whom are veterinary or medically qualified and trained in assessing research proposals. The HBA is the process of considering a research proposal to make a judgement whether the likely harms that the animals will experience are justified by the likely benefits. Under section 18 of the Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act 1986, inspectors advise the Secretary of State who decides whether and on what terms a project licence should be granted.The number of project licences which were recommended for grant by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit inspectors between 2012 and 2015 are shown in table 1, column (c).The Secretary of State has not rejected any of the recommendations for granting project licences made by the Animals in Science Regulation Unit inspectors between 2012 and 2015.The Home Office does not keep records of applications that have been rejected or withdrawn at the concept or drafting stage [24507]. The Home Office does not keep records of which applications were withdrawn as a result of advice from the Animals in Science Regulation Unit inspectors.The Home Office refers project licence applications to both the Animals in Science Committee and external independent assessors for critical review. The number of project licences referred to both is given in Table 1 columns (a) and (b) respectively for the years 2012-15. Year(a) Project licence applications referred to the Animals in Science Committee[1](b) Project licence applications referred to independent assessors(c) Project licences granted201294626201330604201441474201530577  [1] Prior to 2013 the independent advisory body was entitled the ‘Animals Procedures Committee’

Higher Education: Demonstrations

Bob Blackman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of policing on university campuses following the violent protests and criminal damage by demonstrators at an Israel Society event at King's College London last week.

Mike Penning: The operational policing of protests and demonstrations are principally a matter for Chief Officers of each force in England and Wales.Peaceful protest is a vital part of a democratic society. It is a long-standing tradition in this country that people are free to gather together and to demonstrate their views. However, like all members of the public, protesters are subject to the law. Should individuals cross the boundary into criminal acts including public order offences, criminal damage, hate crime offences or violent behaviour, the police have a range of powers to take action.

Zika Virus: Disease Control

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps are being taken at border controls to prevent the Zika virus entering the UK.

James Brokenshire: Border Force Officers will refer any passengers that require medical attention in accordance with established procedures and advice from Public Health England.

Marriage Certificates

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, for what reason she has not yet brought forward proposals to include the names of mothers on their children's marriage certificates.

James Brokenshire: Holding answer received on 03 February 2016



There is agreement that the names of both parents should be included in the marriage entry. The Home Office has, therefore, been working with all interested parties to consider the most efficient and effective way to achieve this. Doing so is likely to require additional funding and changes to legislation, IT systems and administrative processes.A timetable will be confirmed for changes as soon as there is an opportunity to legislate on this matter.

Emergency Services: Pensions

John Pugh: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what safeguards are in place to ensure no shortfalls occur in future in the pensions of firefighters and police officers.

Mike Penning: On 1 April 2015, in line with wider public service pension reform, new career average pension arrangements were introduced for police officers and firefighters. These changes have put pension arrangements on a sustainable footing for the future, setting a fair balance of costs between public servants and other taxpayers, while continuing to provide good pensions for police officers and firefighters which reflect their roles.

Internet: Bullying

Ms Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how her Department works with other governments to tackle internet harassment and trolling perpetrated by residents of other countries on UK citizens.

Karen Bradley: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Immigration: Married People

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people with spouses or partners with UK citizenship have been granted a visa to enter the UK in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire: The available information is shown in the table attached.Information on spouses or partners of UK citizens is not available as it is not held on centrally collated statistical databases and could only be produced at disproportionate cost by examination of individual case files.The latest quarterly Home Office immigration statistics on entry clearance visas are published in ‘Immigration Statistics, July - September 2015’, available from the Library of the House and from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/migration-statistics



Visa applications and resolutions
(Excel SpreadSheet, 106.64 KB)

Deportation: Married People

Carol Monaghan: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people with spouses or partners with UK citizenship have been removed from the UK in each of the last five years.

James Brokenshire: The information requested is not routinely collected and could be provided only by examining individual case records, which would result in disproportionate cost.

Asylum

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what representations her Department has made to its contractors for the provision of asylum support services on potential breaches of contract by those contractors.

James Brokenshire: The Home Office has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Police: Driving

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what requirements her Department places on police officers to take regular driving tests.

Mike Penning: As an operational matter, requirements on officers regarding driving tests are the responsibility of forces.

Foreign and Commonwealth Office

Russia: Theatre Nuclear Weapons

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his US counterpart on Russian violations of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The UK is not a signatory of the Intermediate Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The US has briefed the UK on alleged violations of the Treaty by Russia. Together with our NATO Allies, the UK has called on Russia to preserve the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. Continuing to uphold the Treaty strengthens the security of all, including Russia.

Bulgaria: Religious Freedom

Alison Thewliss: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will raise with the government of Bulgaria the issue of the Ahmadiyya Muslim community being denied the right to register as a religious organisation in Bulgaria.

Mr David Lidington: We are aware of the concerns of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community in Bulgaria. The UK supports the right to freedom of religion or belief for every individual. We would expect the Bulgarian Government to meet its international obligations to ensure freedom of religion or belief for all its citizens.

Maldives: Human Rights

Stephen Gethins: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the human rights situation in the Maldives.

Mr Hugo Swire: We are concerned by a number of recent steps taken by the Maldivian government which undermine human rights in the country. These include; signs that the death penalty is to be reintroduced, restrictions on the right to protest and the intimidation of civil society, human rights organisations and members of the media. Other concerns include the arbitrary detention of political figures and the decreasing independence of institutions and the judiciary. I raised all of these issues with the Maldives government during my visit to the Maldives on 17 and 18 January. In particular I reiterated the UK’s principled opposition to the death penalty.

Islamic State

Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 January 2016 to Question 20771, how many staff are employed in the Coalition Communications Cell; and what the annual operating budget of that unit is.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: There are currently nine full time equivalent members of staff working in the Coalition Communications Cell, including two secondees from Canada and the Netherlands.The operating budget is the amount the Prime Minister announced at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015 which is £10 million; this covers staff costs and all project activity over two financial years. In addition, we are working with Coalition Partners to seek additional resources.

Libya: Oil

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assistance the Government is giving to Libya for protection of oil fields and production lines in that country.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: We are extremely concerned about the growing threat from extremist groups in Libya, including Daesh. The recent attacks on the Ras Lanuf and Sidra oil terminals show the threat that these groups pose to Libya’s future political and economic stability. The urgent establishment of the Libyan Government of National Accord (GNA) is the best way to tackle the threat in the long term. The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) gave this message when he spoke to Prime Minister-designate, Fayez al-Serraj, on 10 January. He also emphasised the UK Government’s commitment to supporting the GNA in tackling the threats from Daesh and people smuggling.Effective public financial management will be crucial in helping the GNA achieve real impact on the ground and gain economic credibility. And it is why we have committed £3 million over the next two years to provide technical assistance and economic governance expertise to Libya, thereby enabling a more effective response to defending Libya’s oil facilities.

Hong Kong: Missing Persons

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterpart in China on the recent disappearance of five people who work for a Hong Kong publishing company and bookseller.

Mr Hugo Swire: Her Majesty's Government remains deeply concerned about British citizen Mr Lee Po who went missing from Hong Kong in December and his four colleagues associated with the Causeway Bay Books bookstore. I raised the issue with the Chinese Ambassador to the UK on 22 January and the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond), raised the case with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Beijing on 5 January. Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials are in regular contact with the Chinese and Hong Kong authorities to make clear our serious concerns about this matter. As the Foreign Secretary told the House on 12 January, if allegations of Chinese security agents taking a British Citizen out of Hong Kong are correct, then this would be a serious breach of the Joint Declaration (Official Record 12 Jan 2016 : Column 693).

Russia: Navy

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Romanian government about a NATO Black Sea fleet.

Mr David Lidington: The UK holds regular discussions with our NATO Allies, including Romania, about security issues across the Euro-Atlantic space, including in the Black Sea region. In July 2015 the Deputy Permanent Representatives Committee in Brussels held a session on the security situation in the Black Sea in which the UK, Romania and a large number of NATO Allies participated.In November 2015 HMS Duncan, the Royal Navy’s newest destroyer, visited Romania and provided a visible British and NATO presence in the Black Sea. HMS Duncan also participated in a Passing Exercise with the Romanian navy with the aim of increasing NATO interoperability.

Islamic State

Ms Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 4 January 2016 to Question 20769, how many individuals have been subject to sanctions imposed by the UK Government for (a) brokering oil deals between Daesh and the Assad regime and (b) other matters covered by UN Security Council Resolution 2253.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: The UK implements the EU’s Syria Sanctions Regime. The EU has listed George Haswani due to his role as a middleman in the purchase of oil from Daesh by the Syrian Regime. In doing so he helps the regime’s military effort against the Syrian people.There are an additional 26 Daesh related individuals/entities on the UN list that the UK takes action against, five of whom the UK proposed in September, and the majority of whom we have co-sponsored with partners. This was the first time the British Government asked the UN to add Britons associated with Daesh to its ‘Daesh and Al-Qaeda Sanctions list’, which UNSCR 2253 renewed. We will continue to consider whether more individuals should be subjected to the sanctions.The UK implements all UN Daesh/AQ sanctions fully following the adoptions of UN Security Council Resolution 2253 on 17 December 2015.Our primary focus remains bringing individuals supporting terrorist organisations to justice; for example the recent conviction of Tareena Shakil who had been a member of Daesh in Syria and encouraged acts of terror.

NATO Countries: Political Parties

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what assessment his Department has made of the level of Russian funding for political groups in NATO member states who oppose NATO and nuclear weapons.

Mr David Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has made no such assessment. At the Wales Summit in 2014 all NATO Heads of State/Government reaffirmed their commitment to NATO as a nuclear alliance.

Russia: Propaganda

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to counter Russian propaganda directed at the UK or at NATO.

Mr David Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is leading a cross-government and international approach to counter Russian misinformation and provide positive, alternative narratives. The UK Government is employing a range of measures to do this, including: strengthening the BBC’s Russian service; setting up and co-ordinating a “Friends of Ukraine” communication hub; leading successful lobbying to create an EU Strategic Communication team in Brussels that is focussed on Eastern Europe; leading the charge to set up the NATO Centre of Excellence for Communication in Riga; helping set-up a NATO trust fund to ensure impactful strategic communication interventions by NATO; and training EU and NATO teams to increase their capacity to rebut Russian misinformation.

Turkey: Merchant Shipping

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Turkish government on access to the Black Sea for merchant shipping.

Mr David Lidington: No discussions have taken place between the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Mr Hammond) and the Turkish government on access to the Black Sea for merchant shipping.

Russia: Mass Media

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the BBC and NATO on more effective use of the BBC World Service to counter inaccurate reporting from Russian media outlets.

Mr David Lidington: The Foreign and Commonwealth Office is in consultation with partners and allies on how to achieve greater access to quality, independent BBC content in countries with significant Russian speaking populations.The Government is investing additional funds in the BBC’s digital, TV and radio services around the world to build the global reach of the World Service and increase access to news and information, including additional programming for Russian speakers. It is for the BBC, as an independent broadcaster, to take its own decision about scheduling and programme control.

Russia: Human Rights

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with the government of Russia on human rights violations in that country.

Mr David Lidington: During my visit to Moscow on 21-22 December 2015, I raised the UK’s concerns about the human rights situation in Russia with my counterpart First Deputy Foreign Minister Vladimir Titov. I pressed for the immediate release of Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko, who has restarted her hunger strike having spent 18 months in illegal detention, and I called for the release of filmmaker Oleg Sentsov and activist Olexandr Kolchenko, whose trials have also raised serious concerns. I raised our concerns about restrictions on civil society, Russia’s labelling of NGOs as “foreign agents”, and the situation of the LGBT community. I also met a group of human rights defenders to hear their concerns first hand. The UK will continue to support Russian civil society and to raise human rights issues with the Russian Government.

Sri Lanka: Terrorism

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 24 November 2015 to Question 16355, how his Department monitors the situation of detainees in Sri Lanka held under its Prevention of Terrorism Act 1978.

Mr Hugo Swire: The British High Commission in Colombo is in regular contact with government officials, Tamil National Alliance MPs, and civil society representatives about the situation of detainees held under the Prevention of Terrorism Act. We also work on this issue with other diplomatic missions, the EU and UN bodies.

Sri Lanka: Terrorism

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what further steps he intends to take to encourage the Sri Lankan authorities to review the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1978.

Mr Hugo Swire: I visited Sri Lanka from 14 to 17 January when I discussed a wide range of issues with the government of Sri Lanka, including the need for it to fulfil its commitment to repeal the Prevention of Terrorism Act. Officials at the British High Commission in Colombo will continue to encourage progress. We are also working closely with our international partners to encourage the government to address this concern. The EU issue was raised during the EU-Sri Lanka Human Rights Working Group discussions in Colombo on 19 to 22 January.

Sri Lanka: Land

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effects of the steps the government of Sri Lanka has taken to return land currently controlled by the military to civilians.

Mr Hugo Swire: Since President Sirisena came to power in January 2015, there have been welcome moves to return some military occupied private land to civilians. However, much remains to be done.We continue to encourage further land returns, a process the UK is contributing to through our support for demining in the north of the country. During my visit to Sri Lanka on 14 to 17 January I met with resettled families in the north seeing for myself the progress that has been made as well as the challenges that remain.

Sri Lanka: Human Rights

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the steps the Sri Lankan authorities have taken to implement the recommendations of the UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 on Sri Lanka.

Mr Hugo Swire: During my visit to Sri Lanka on 14 to 17 January I was able to see for myself the progress that Sri Lanka has made in implementing its commitments to the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Resolution as well as the considerable challenges that remain. There have been some encouraging developments such as the return of some military occupied land, the deproscription of Tamil diaspora organisations and the release on bail of some long-term Tamil detainees held under anti-terrorism legislation. There is still much to be done and the UK is committed to supporting Sri Lanka to fulfil all of its UNHRC commitments. We welcome Sri Lanka’s engagement with the UN. The High Commissioner for Human Rights will visit shortly to inform his assessment of Sri Lanka’s progress, which he will present to the UNHRC in June.

Sri Lanka: Human Rights

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps his Department plans to take to support the implementation of UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1 on Sri Lanka.

Mr Hugo Swire: The UK is committed to supporting reconciliation, accountability and human rights in Sri Lanka, which are fundamental elements of UN Human Rights Council Resolution 30/1. The Prime Minister, my right hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) announced £6.6 million of funding for Sri Lanka at the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November 2015 which will be used for providing support in these areas. We will coordinate our efforts with the Sri Lankan government and with international partners to target support at areas where it is most needed. We will regularly evaluate the effectiveness of our funding and assess opportunities for providing further support.

Sri Lanka: Crimes against Humanity

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the implications of the announcement by Sri Lanka's President Sirisena that he will not allow foreign judges to participate in the inquiry into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Hugo Swire: Her Majesty's Government has always been clear that any accountability mechanism needs to be credible and meet international standards. I therefore welcomed the resolution on Sri Lanka adopted at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in October 2015, co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, which called for the participation of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers, and authorised prosecutors and investigators, in Sri Lanka's judicial accountability process. During my visit to Sri Lanka on 14 to 17 January I discussed the importance of an international element in Sri Lanka’s accountability process with both Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Samaraweera. I also wrote to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on 28 January to reiterate the UK Government’s commitment to working with the UN, Sri Lanka and our other international partners to ensure full implementation of the UNHRC resolution.

Sri Lanka: Crimes against Humanity

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent discussions he has had with his (a) Sri Lankan and (b) UN Human Rights Council counterparts regarding the announcement by Sri Lanka's President Sirisena that foreign judges will not be involved in the inquiry into alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Mr Hugo Swire: The British Government has always been clear that any accountability mechanism needs to be credible and meet international standards. I therefore welcomed the resolution on Sri Lanka adopted at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in October 2015, co-sponsored by Sri Lanka, which called for the participation of Commonwealth and other foreign judges, defence lawyers, and authorised prosecutors and investigators, in Sri Lanka's judicial accountability process. During my most recent visit to Sri Lanka on 14 to 17 January I discussed the importance of an international element in Sri Lanka’s accountability process with both Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Samaraweera. I also wrote to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on 28 January to reiterate the UK Government’s commitment to working with the UN, Sri Lanka and our other international partners to ensure full implementation of the UNHRC resolution.

Travel Information

Mr David Burrowes: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if his Department will update its travel checklist to include advice and warnings about the danger posed by carbon monoxide when travelling abroad.

James Duddridge: While the number of consular cases involving British nationals affected by carbon monoxide poisoning overseas is low, this remains a concern. The travel industry has an important role to play in addressing this issue, including through communications, although care must be taken to ensure the onus is not placed entirely on the traveller. Holiday providers should provide a safe environment without requiring holidaymakers to, for example, carry carbon monoxide alarms. In the UK, the energy industry is providing important advice to the public on carbon monoxide poisoning through its ‘Be Alarmed’ campaign. Our foreign travel checklist on the GOV.UK website signposts travellers to their advice.

Sri Lanka: Torture

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the prevalence of torture in Sri Lanka.

Mr Hugo Swire: Her Majesty's Government takes very seriously any allegations of torture or other forms of ill-treatment, in Sri Lanka as in other countries. I raised concerns, highlighted by recent NGO reports on allegations of ongoing torture in Sri Lanka, with both the government and civil society when I visited Sri Lanka in January. British High Commission officials in Colombo are also in regular contact with local human rights organisations in Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka: Politics and Government

Joan Ryan: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the government of Sri Lanka's efforts to fulfil its commitments on the devolution of political authority.

Mr Hugo Swire: During my recent visit to Sri Lanka I discussed the issue of political settlement and devolution with the government and with Tamil politicians. I was encouraged that consultations are beginning and that a formal process of drafting a new constitution, including provisions for devolution, is due to begin shortly.

Islamic State

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with the Israeli government on tackling the spread of Daesh in the Middle East.

Mr Tobias Ellwood: Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials have regular discussions with the Israeli Government on shared security threats. These include sharing analysis on the spread of Daesh across the Middle East, and discussing our efforts to tackle this spread, including through the Global Counter-Daesh Coalition, international sanctions, and support to bolster countries in the region, such as Jordan.I will be visiting Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories later this month where I will continue these discussions.

Zika Virus: Disease Control

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his counterparts (a) in South America and (b) elsewhere on steps to prevent the spread of the Zika virus.

Mr Hugo Swire: British officials across the region have been working closely with their counterparts on steps to understand and prevent the spread of the Zika Virus. We have focused particularly on Brazil, which has seen the highest number of cases in the region. On 26 January, the UK announced a new Zika research project between Glasgow University and Fiocruz, a leading biomedical research centre in Brazil. The following day, a scientist from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine arrived in Recife to support Zika research led by the Pan American Health Organisation. Discussions are also ongoing between Foreign and Commonwealth Office officials and the Brazilian National Health Surveillance Agency with regards to combating this virus. On 1 February, I discussed Zika with Ambassadors from the Group of Latin America Countries (GRULAC), highlighting UK assistance to date on this issue and stressing the importance of providing information to those planning their travel now, not least to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

Tunisia: British Nationals Abroad

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how many UK citizens reported themselves to the British Consulate in Ibiza as victims of crime in each of the last five years; what the nature of those crimes was; whether those crimes involved sexual violence or harassment; and what prosecutions resulted from those reports.

Mr David Lidington: Consular staff routinely record all those cases in which we have provided assistance to British nationals oversees. However, our records do not specifically identify whether those requesting assistance were victims of crime.Since 2012, the British Consulate in Ibiza recorded the following cases which are those most likely to have involved victims of crime. Where the number of reported cases is less or equal to five, these are annotated as 'Less than 5' to avoid the risk of identifying the individuals concerned.It is not mandatory for victims to provide information about any potential prosecutions, so we do not hold information on the number of prosecutions that arose from these casesRape & sexual assault 2011 8 2012 8 2013 7 2014 7 2015 Less than 5Assault - General 2011 16 2012 36 2013 14 2014 Less than 5 2015 0Domestic Violence 2011 0 2012 0 2013 0 2014 Less than 5 2015 5

Germany: Thalidomide

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what discussions he has had with his German counterpart on compensation for thalidomide survivors in the last year; and if he will make a statement.

Mr David Lidington: At a meeting with representatives of the Thalidomide Trust on 11 January, I agreed to raise with the German Ambassador the Trust's request for a further meeting with the German authorities. I wrote in these terms to the Ambassador on 4 February.

Yemen: Military Intervention

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24112, if he will make an assessment of responsibility for damage to cultural property in Yemen.

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24122, when his Department last made an assessment of responsibility for damage to cultural property in Yemen.

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24122, what damage to cultural property in Yemen he remains most concerned about.

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24112, if he will make an assessment of whether there have been contraventions of the (a) 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict and (b) 1972 World Heritage Convention during the conflict in Yemen.

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 24112, when he last raised concerns regarding protection of cultural property the governments of Yemen and Saudi Arabia.

Mr Philip Hammond: We remain concerned about any damage to cultural property in Yemen and are aware of reports of alleged damage by actors in the conflict. Yemen and many members of the Saudi-led coalition are parties to the 1954 Hague Convention on the Protection of Cultural Property in the event of Armed Conflict and to the 1972 World Heritage Convention. We have raised our concerns regarding protection of cultural property with both the government of Yemen and the Saudi Arabian government.

Attorney General

Department for Education: Legal Costs

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Attorney General, if he will estimate the costs attributed to the Department for Education by the Government Legal Department since 2010.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Attorney General, if he will estimate the costs attributed to the Department for Education by the former Treasury Solicitor's Department in each year since 2010.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Attorney General, if he will estimate the costs attributed to the Department for Education in cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by the Government Legal Department since 2010.

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Attorney General, if he will publish an estimate of the costs attributed to the Department for Education in cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 by the former Treasury Solicitor's Department in each year since 2010.

Robert Buckland: The Treasury Solicitor’s Department was renamed the Government Legal Department (GLD) on 1 April 2015. It is primarily funded through the fees it charges for its legal services. It provides Litigation, Employment, Commercial and Advisory legal services to the Department for Education (DfE). The fees charged to DfE for this work, including the cost of disbursements, are as follows: Financial yearFees (excluding VAT) £2010-114,208,8452011-124,499,5462012-134,805,8402013-144,409,9762014-154,098,629  Providing information on the costs attributed to cases relating to the Freedom of Information Act 2000 would incur disproportionate cost as it would involve a manual exercise to identify those historical cases that relate to FOI.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Easter

Sir Greg Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what the implications are for the Government's policy of bringing into force provisions of the Easter Act 1928 to fix a date for Easter of recent comments by the Archbishop of Canterbury; and if he will make a statement.

Nick Boles: I understand that the Archbishop of Canterbury has recently indicated that he is working with other Christian churches to agree on a fixed date for Easter. At present, Easter occurs on the first Sunday after the first ecclesiastical full moon following the spring equinox. The suggestion is that Easter be fixed in the second or third Sunday in April. The Easter Act 1928, which remains on the Statute Book, would set the date for Easter to fall on the Sunday that follows the second Saturday in April (i.e. between 9 and 15 April). The Act has not been brought into force. To so would require an Order in Council, with the approval of both Houses of Parliament. The Act also requires that, before the Order is made, “regard shall be had to any opinion officially expressed by any Church or other Christian Body." If the Christian churches were to agree on moving to a fixed date for Easter then the Government would consider, depending on what date is agreed, whether to bring into force the Easter Act 1928 or to make such other legislative provision as may be needed. However, there is no indication yet whether or when a date will be agreed or what that date would be.

Exports: Developing Countries

Craig Whittaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support his Department is providing to businesses to increase exports to developing economies.

Anna Soubry: Increasing exports, to all overseas markets, is a key factor in the Government’s long-term economic plan. Government departments are working together to support UK businesses looking to take advantage of overseas opportunities and to create a strong business environment that allows them to flourish both at home and overseas. A key part of this work is to identify export opportunities, many of which are based around the needs of global developing economies. My noble Friend Lord Maude of Horsham made a statement to the House on Tuesday 19th January on the Government’s strategy to support Trade. This outlines a new, whole-of-government approach to expanding the number of exporters and the value they generate for the British economy. The aim is to make it easier for small business to access this support through better digital platforms, working more closely with partners and making sure services match the needs of business.

Financial Services

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what steps he plans to take to widen access to sources of alternative finance.

Anna Soubry: Alternative finance is a rapidly growing sector. Latest figures from the Peer-to-Peer Finance Association (P2PFA) show that new SME loans originated by their members increased by 89% year-on-year in the fourth quarter of 2015. Equity crowdfunded deal numbers and investment totals have also been steadily rising. The British Business Bank is an active participant in the sector and during the last 12 months has supported 3,301 businesses through the peer-to-peer platforms Funding Circle, RateSetter and Zopa.A key element in the growth of the UK alternative finance sector has been a regulatory environment that supports innovation while protecting both investors and businesses. In addition, government is bringing into effect provisions in the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 which will require the largest banks - where they decline lending requests from small business customers - to offer those customers the opportunity for their details to be referred to a government-designated funding platform. These platforms will help match SMEs with alternative finance providers and will be brought into operation later this year.

Green Investment Bank: Privatisation

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans his Department has to ensure that a privatised Green Investment Bank will work to open major new investment options for investors in the UK's low carbon economy while making a material contribution to decarbonisation.

Anna Soubry: Details of why the Government believes moving UK Green Investment Bank plc (GIB) into private ownership represents the best way to enable the company to deliver its ambitious green business plan and have a greater impact on green investment while minimising burdens on the UK taxpayer are provided in our November 2015 policy statement on the future of GIB and are further set out in the Government’s response to the Environmental Audit Committee’s report on the future of GIB which was laid in Parliament on 2 February. Both documents can be found on the GIB pages of the GOV.UK website.

Green Investment Bank: Privatisation

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what effect the European Commission's decision to grant the Green Investment Bank scope to operate with aided capital until mid-2017 has had on his Department's policy on privatising that bank.

Anna Soubry: The original European Commission state aid decision on the Green Investment Bank (GIB) gave approval for GIB to operate until October 2016. While we expect to move GIB into private ownership during the course of 2016, the Government has obtained an updated state aid approval that provides the scope for GIB to operate as a state funded enterprise until the end of March 2018. This ensures GIB could continue to operate should the sale process extend beyond October.

Green Investment Bank: Privatisation

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what plans his Department has to ensure that a privatised Green Investment Bank will support the UK's cities, regions and nations in creating robust low carbon economies.

Anna Soubry: The Green Investment Bank (GIB) can best contribute to UK green policy objectives by doing what it does best – achieving the demonstration effect and mobilising much needed private capital into green sectors.GIB will continue to perform that role in private ownership - getting more investment into green sectors that are relatively mature but nevertheless suffer from a lack of investmentIn private hands, GIB will have access to much more capital than if it remained in Government hands – and will be able to have a bigger impact.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills: Tableware

Ruth Smeeth: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what proportion of the tableware used in his Department is made in the UK.

Joseph Johnson: The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills has 2 suppliers of restaurant services in the core Department buildings: EC Harris and Baxter Storey. EC HarrisCurrently, 40% of tableware supplied by EC Harris is manufactured in the UK. The policy is to buy UK manufactured tableware to replace existing tableware. The 60% of tableware not manufactured in the UK has been inherited from previous suppliers.Baxter StoreyCurrently, 70% of tableware supplied by Baxter Storey is manufactured in the UK and the remaining 30% is Chinese.

Overseas Trade: China

Ruth Smeeth: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the UK ceramics industry of China being granted Market Economy Status.

Anna Soubry: We are awaiting a European Commission proposal on granting Market Economy Status (MES). We understand that the Commission will also be undertaking a detailed assessment of the economic impacts of granting MES as part of their consideration of this issue. We will examine any proposal and assessment carefully. In considering the Commission’s proposal it will be important to take into account the wider trade and international context including China’s compliance with international commitments. If China is granted MES, the Commission will still be able to pursue anti-dumping and anti-subsidy cases and impose measures where evidence of dumping or subsidy is found; this is the case with the US and Russia, both of whom have MES status.

EU Emissions Trading Scheme: Ceramics

Ruth Smeeth: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with representatives of the UK ceramics industry on the effect of the EU Emissions Trading Scheme.

Anna Soubry: I can confirm that I met on 3 February 2016 the British Ceramics Confederation. BIS officials are also in regular contact with the sector on all energy and environment matters.

Green Investment Bank

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he has made an assessment of the projects with which the Green Investment Bank has been involved which would not have gone ahead without investment from that Bank.

Anna Soubry: One of the UK Green Investment Bank’s (GIB’s) objectives is to invest in green projects that would not go ahead, or would not go ahead as quickly, without investment from GIB. The majority of the projects GIB supports fall into this category. Where GIB has invested in projects that are already operational, this has been for the purpose of building a secondary market for such assets which releases the funds of project developers to invest in new construction projects

Motor Vehicles: Trade Competitiveness

Heather Wheeler: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent assessment he has made of the relative competitiveness of the UK automotive industry.

Anna Soubry: In November last year the Automotive Council published a comprehensive report called The International Competitiveness of the UK Automotive Industry.The report is intended to illustrate where the UK has a competitive advantage over other countries, and to identify where additional attention from government and industry is needed. It will assist the Automotive Council in ensuring it focuses its resources on the areas that will offer the greatest return for the UK automotive sector, and in ensuring that the UK remains one of the most attractive places for investment.

Green Investment Bank: Privatisation

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the ability of a privatised Green Investment Bank to address market failures in the low carbon economy.

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what recent assessment he has made of the differences in the ability of the Green Investment Bank to invest in higher risk emerging green technologies as a (a) public and (b) private sector bank.

Anna Soubry: The Government’s position on this matter was set out in paragraphs 31 – 36 of our November 2015 policy statement on the future of the UK Green Investment Bank (GIB) which can be found on the GIB pages of the GOV.UK website. This makes clear that GIB’s remit has always been to invest in green projects on fully commercial terms to help demonstrate green investment can be profitable and attract additional private sector investment into green sectors from mainstream finance providers. GIB will continue to perform that role in private ownership. There are other Government policy mechanisms in place aimed at promoting investment in more high risk projects and early stage technologies.

Green Investment Bank: Privatisation

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will allocate all funds raised by privatisation of the Green Investment Bank to green technologies in the UK.

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, whether he plans to invest any unallocated funding held by the Green Investment Bank at its point of privatisation into green projects in the UK.

Anna Soubry: The Government has put paying down our debt while investing in infrastructure at the heart of our long term economic plan. Proceeds from a sale of UK Green investment Bank plc (GIB) will help us deliver on both those objectives. Any proposal to allocate Government funding to other types of intervention to achieve green policy objectives would need to be considered individually on its merits. GIB’s remit has always been to invest in green projects on fully commercial terms to help demonstrate green investment can be profitable and attract additional private sector investment into green sectors from mainstream finance providers. GIB will continue to perform that role in private ownership. Details of the other Government policy mechanisms in place aimed at promoting investment in more high risk projects and early stage technologies are provided at paragraphs 31 – 36 of our November 2015 policy statement on the future of GIB which can be found on the GIB pages of the GOV.UK website.

Further Education: Mergers

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on measures to ensure that banks and other financial institutions are not able to profit from the merging of any further education institutions as a result of his Department's area reviews.

Nick Boles: I refer the hon Member to the answer to Question UIN 02129.

Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit: Finance

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what his Department's planned expenditure on the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit is for (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Intellectual Property Office has committed to provision of £1.5m funding for the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in 2016-17. Funding beyond that period is still to be determined.

Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit: Staff

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of how many full time police officers will work in the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit is funded by the Intellectual Property Office, but is considered operationally independent, and is fully managed by the City of London Police. Future staffing levels will be a matter for the City of London Police to determine in the light of the unit’s workload and requirements.

Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit: Convictions

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many successful convictions were secured by the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit in (a) 2013-14, (b) 2014-15 and (c) 2015-16.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Figures for the years in question are as follows;(a) 2013-14, 16 arrests, 2 cautions(b) 2014-15, 33 arrests, 11 cautions(c) 2015-16, 13 arrests, 1 caution, 1 conviction Securing convictions is not the sole aim of the unit. Equally important in the fight against IP crime is the Unit’s work on taking down infringing websites and pursuing broader disruptive activity.

Students: Disability

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of mechanisms by which a disabled student can challenge a failure to make reasonable adjustment under the Equality Act 2010 by a higher education institution.

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how his Department plans to monitor whether higher education institutions comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010 towards disabled students; and what remedies are available to such students in the event that an institution does not comply with those duties.

Joseph Johnson: Higher Education Institutions have a legal duty under the Equality Act 2010 to provide reasonable adjustments for disabled students and to monitor their compliance with their Equality Act duties. The Equality Act 2010 (Specific Duties) Regulations 2011 require institutions to publish information as to their compliance with the general public sector equality duty. In those cases where a student is dissatisfied with the response from their higher education institution and have completed the institution’s formal complaints procedures, they can take their complaint to the Office of the Independent Adjudicator (OIA) for Higher Education. The OIA is independent of Government and publishes an annual report setting out its performance in handling unresolved student complaints. In providing remedies, the OIA aims to return students to the position they were in before their complaint. In appropriate circumstances this can include financial payments.

Office of the Independent Adjudicator for Higher Education

Jim Fitzpatrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many cases heard by the Office of the Independent Adjudicator were closed within three months in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015.

Joseph Johnson: Data is not collected in the way the Hon Member has requested. The Office of the Independent Adjudicator has a key performance indicator which tracks cases closed within six months from the receipt of the complaint form. In its most recently published annual report, the Office of the Independent Adjudicator reported that 39 per cent of cases were closed within this period.

Iron and Steel: Import Duties

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, when he last discussed import duties on steel reinforcing bars with the European Commission.

Anna Soubry: My Rt Hon Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills last discussed the European Commission’s anti-dumping investigation into steel reinforcing bars with Trade Commissioner Malmstrom on 20 January.

Floods and Weather: Cumbria

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what estimate his Department has made of the cost to businesses in Cumbria of recent flooding and severe weather.

Anna Soubry: The Department does not have an estimate of the cost to businesses in Cumbria as a result of recent flooding. We expect at least 2,000 businesses to have been impacted by the flooding, based on reports from local partners, with many more affected as a result of secondary issues such as damage to important infrastructure such as the A591. We know that getting timely support in place is really important and that is why we moved quickly, with Cumbria County Council and Cumbria Local Enterprise Partnership, to put in place a business recovery scheme. Cumbria have already received £2.6 million of funding to begin paying to businesses to help them recover and as more applications are made by businesses we’ll provide additional funding from the £11m we have made available to support business recovery following this winter’s flooding. Flooded businesses also benefit from businesses rates relief and can also apply for up to £5,000 to make sure that property repairs include greater resilience to any future flooding.

Department for International Development

International Assistance

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what the implications are for the timescale of projects her Department funds in developing countries of the 15 year timescale that has been set for achieving the sustainable development goals.

Mr Desmond Swayne: The Global Goals will be the starting point for all DFID’s work in the coming years. All DFID programmes have to consider at the design stage what longer-term impact they will have and how the envisaged benefits of the programme will be sustained beyond the period of DFID's support, and all individual DFID programmes and DFID's overall portfolio are reviewed on a regular basis, with the rate of progress towards the Global Goals a key factor.

Malawi: Inflation

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what assessment she has made of the effect of high inflation in Malawi.

Mr Nick Hurd: Malawi has one of the highest rates of inflation in Africa: double digit inflation is commonplace. High inflation, alongside high fiscal deficits, debt and interest rates, are lowering business confidence and crowding out private investment. Social services are being delivered from a constrained budget with high levels of government borrowing. Poor harvests in 2015 and poor rainfall due to the ongoing El Nino are affecting the national economy and Malawi is now facing its worst food insecurity crisis in a decade. The UK and international partners are responding.DFID Malawi works closely with other development partners, in particular the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), to monitor the macroeconomic situation in Malawi. The IMF’s Article IV Consultation in December 2015 concluded that “an appropriately tight fiscal policy is needed to support monetary policy actions aimed at placing inflation on a downward trajectory.” DFID is working with the World Bank to inform the Government of Malawi’s next Development Strategy.

Malawi: Malnutrition

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what steps her Department is taking to address the prevalence of hunger in Malawi.

Mr Nick Hurd: DFID has a significant programme of ongoing support in health, education, agriculture, water and sanitation and economic development, particularly in rural areas and with the private sector, for growth, jobs, incomes and food insecurity. We support increasing access to justice for women and vulnerable groups, accountability and governance reforms.The UK was one of the first development partners to respond to Malawi’s international appeal for emergency aid in October 2015. The UK has now committed £14.5m through partners including the World Food Programme, UNICEF and an International Non-Governmental Organisation (INGO) consortium led by Save the Children. This support includes:Food for over 800,000 people, including pre-positioning of food, nutrition supplies and livestock vaccines.Cash transfers for up to 450,000 people who live near functioning markets but do not have the means to purchase foodMass screening of up to 800,000 children to identify urgent nutritional support needsSpecialist supplies for up to 75,000 children and others suffering from acute malnutritionVital protection support to vulnerable people, including women and girls, in displacement and refugee camps

Developing Countries: Climate Change

Patrick Grady: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what plans the Government has to contribute to the funding agreed at the Paris Climate Conference in December 2015 to assist developing countries in adapting to the effects of climate change.

Mr Nick Hurd: The Government will provide £5.8 billion over the next five years to support developing countries in tackling climate change through the UK International Climate Fund, including at least £1.76 billion in 2020, ensuring that the UK plays its part in achieving the goal of mobilising $100 billion of climate finance a year by 2020. We plan to spend 50% of our climate finance on adaptation and 50% on mitigation.

Middle East: Christianity

Mr David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, what support her Department is providing to Christian communities in Iraq and Syria.

Mr Desmond Swayne: There have been horrific cases of attacks on Christians and other religious communities by violent extremists including Daesh. We prioritise reaching the most vulnerable people across Iraq and Syria, including Christians and others who have suffered from such violence. All UK funded humanitarian assistance is distributed on the basis of need, and need alone, to ensure civilians are not discriminated against on the grounds of race, religion, or ethnicity. The UK continues to work with the UN and the international community to ensure all minorities’ rights are protected and our aid reaches those in greatest need.To date, the UK has committed £79.5 million to the humanitarian crisis in Iraq. In response to the Syria crisis, we have pledged over £2.3 billion, our largest ever response to a single humanitarian crisis.As a result of UK support to Syria and the region, between February 2012 and June 2015, almost 20 million food rations were distributed, 1.6 million people were provided with clean water, 2.5 million medical consultations were provided, over 4 million relief packages were distributed and over 250,000 children were supported in formal and informal education.

Developing Countries: Politics and Government

Colleen Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, whether her Department is taking part in cross-departmental work to promote stability and good governance in fragile and conflict affected states.

Mr Desmond Swayne: Yes. DFID plays a key role in delivering the UK’s national security objective to build stability overseas, including in fragile states and regions. Our approach is set out in the Government’s National Security Strategy and Strategic Defence and Security Review, which is publicly available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/national-security-strategy-and-strategic-defence-and-security-review-2015

Department for Education

Obesity: Children

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps are being taken in primary schools to address obesity.

Edward Timpson: A number of measures are already helping to address obesity in primary schools in England. The Government has committed over £600 million per year to funding free school meals for all pupils in reception, year 1 and year 2, providing nutritious meals every day and helping to form good eating habits early. The School Food Standards, introduced in 2015, ensure that healthy food is provided throughout the school day and severely restrict fat and sugar. We will continue to invest £150 million per year until 2020 to improve the quality of PE and sport in primary schools. PE is compulsory at all four key stages in the national curriculum for maintained schools.The Government will launch its childhood obesity strategy shortly. It will look at everything that contributes to a child becoming overweight and obese. It will also set out what more can be done by all sides, including schools.

STEM Subjects: Teachers

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps the Government is taking to work with schools and teacher training providers to (a) increase the number of science and mathematics teachers and (b) to ensure that such teachers work in the schools where they are most needed.

Nick Gibb: We recognise that increasing the number of science and mathematics teachers, particularly in some parts of the country, given the career choices available to graduates of these subjects is a challenge. We are taking a number of steps to increase their numbers further.We are implementing a package of up to £67 million to transform mathematics and physics teaching in England. This will provide subject knowledge training to 15,000 non-specialist serving teachers and recruit up to 2,500 additional mathematics and physics teachers. The package includes programmes to encourage the brightest A level students and undergraduates into teaching; salaried part-time and abridged courses for career changers; a salaried route for post-doctoral maths and physics researchers; and support for qualified teachers wishing to return to the profession.We have increased bursaries for science and mathematics trainee teachers; including £30,000 for physics trainees with first-class degrees. We are also offering prestigious scholarships, worth up to £30,000 for physics, and £25,000 for mathematics, chemistry and computing trainees, in partnership with the professional bodies for these subjects.Through the School Direct route, which is specifically targeted at career changers and allows them to earn a salary whilst they train to teach, we are providing enhanced grant funding of £25,000 (up to £29,900 in inner London) to schools that pay the trainee an enhanced salary of at least £21,000 (£25,000 in inner London).Our marketing campaign, Your Future | Their Future, includes targeted subject specific science and mathematics advertising through a range of media. Those who wish to teach secondary science or mathematics are eligible for our enhanced Premier Plus service, which provides support from a dedicated adviser to guide them through the application process. Those applicants who would benefit from it can also access funded courses to boost or refresh their subject knowledge to a level that will allow them to teach the subject.To ensure that these teachers work in the schools where they are most needed, we have expanded school-led initial teacher training (ITT) by introducing School Direct and accrediting more school-centred initial teacher training providers. School-led ITT gives schools the leading role in responding to recruitment needs in their local area, including for science and mathematics teachers. We have also supported the growth of Teach First, a prestigious teacher training route which places trainees in some of the most deprived and challenging areas of the country. As a result of these reforms, 2015/16 is the first year in which more than half of postgraduate ITT is school-led, with 51% of trainees on a school-led route.The National College for Teaching and Leadership has also recently changed its approach to allocating ITT places, giving individual schools and universities the freedom to recruit as many science and mathematics trainees as they need, up to the national target for each subject.We have also recently launched the National Teaching Service (NTS). This will help schools that are finding it difficult to retain and recruit the teachers they need, such as in rural, coastal or deprived areas. We will first test aspects of the model through a pilot of 100 NTS teachers/middle leaders starting in secondary and primary schools in the North West from September 2016. Thereafter the national programme will be rolled out to other parts of the country so that by 2020 there will be 1,500 outstanding NTS teachers and middle leaders in schools that need them.

STEM Subjects: Young People

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the Your Life campaign in changing the perceptions of STEM subjects amoung young people.

Nick Gibb: This Government welcomes the independently led Your Life campaign which aims to increase the number of young people studying science and mathematics at A level, and which is funded by nine corporate sponsors. We look forward to hearing from the campaign what impact it has had on young people’s perceptions.Since 2010 the number of young people studying science and mathematics A levels has increased by around 29,000. The Government is committed to further increasing these numbers and is taking action to do so, such as recruiting top graduates into teaching.

Pupils: Disadvantaged

Ruth Smeeth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much of the available funding for the Pupil Premium Summer School Programme was spent in 2015; and how much was spent on food provision for children outside term time.

Mr Sam Gyimah: From 2015-16, the total expenditure by the Department on the summer schools programme was £38m. The Department does not collect data on the number of schools that provided meals for pupils as part of their summer school, nor on the amount of summer school funding spent on food provision.

Pupils: Disadvantaged

Ruth Smeeth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what funding was available for the Pupil Premium Summer School Programme in 2015.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The Department made up to £46m of funding from the pupil premium available to support schools in delivering summer schools in 2015. The actual amount paid to the 2,171 secondary schools that chose to take part in the 2015 programme, which involved over 92,000 pupils, was £38m.

English Baccalaureate: Arts

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will ensure that creative subjects are included in the new Ebac; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: This Government’s aim is to have at least 90% of pupils taking GCSEs from the English Baccalaureate subjects of English, maths, science, humanities and languages.These subjects are part of a broad and balanced curriculum. There is space in the wider school curriculum to teach other subjects alongside these subjects.On 3 November 2015 the Secretary of State for Education launched a public consultation seeking views on the government’s proposals for the implementation of the English Baccalaureate[1]. The consultation closed on 29 January 2016 and the government will publish its response in the spring.[1] https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/implementing-the-english-baccalaureate

Pupils: Per Capita Costs

Jess Phillips: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the relevant per pupil outturn expenditure on Education Services Grant-supported activities for the highest, median and lowest spending local authorities was for the 2014-15 financial year; and if she will publish the same statistics for planned expenditure for the 2015-16 financial year.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The Education Services Grant (ESG) is unringfenced and local authorities therefore have complete discretion on how to spend this funding. The Department for Education has previously set out a list of activities that the grant is intended to fund, which can be found online here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/335723/ESG_AnnexA_reformatted.pdfLocal authorities report their planned expenditure on the related budget lines through their section 251 returns and the data from these returns are published online. The data for 2014-15 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/local-authority-benchmarking-tables-2014-to-2015 and the data for 2015-16 can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/section-251-2015-to-2016

Carers: Young People

Rebecca Long Bailey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will consider including young adult carers in the vulnerable bursary criteria for the 16 to 19 Bursary Fund.

Mr Sam Gyimah: The Government recognises the extremely valuable service that young carers provide to their community as well as to their families.Additional disadvantage funding is given to schools and colleges through Block 1 and 2 funding to provide extra educational and pastoral support for students whose education has fallen behind for any reason, such as having caring responsibilities.The 16 to 19 vulnerable bursary targets specific groups of vulnerable young people whom we know experience financial hardship and we have no plans to change the qualifying criteria.The 16 to 19 discretionary bursary is available to support any student who needs financial assistance to stay in education and we will strengthen the guidance provided to the schools and colleges that administer discretionary bursary funds to ensure the needs of young carers are recognised.

Languages: Education

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many entrants there were for GCSE and A-level (a) Gujarati and (b) Hindi by (i) exam board and (ii) each region and constituent part of the UK in each of the last five years.

Nick Gibb: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Child Protection Taskforce

Ann Coffey: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many times the Child Protection Taskforce announced by the Prime Minister on 24 June 2015 has met; and when that taskforce plans to publish its first report.

Edward Timpson: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Science: Teachers

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2016 to Question 22089, what plans her Department has to collect subject level retention rates for teachers in funded secondary schools; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Primary Education: Admissions

Colleen Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to increase the number of primary school places in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England.

Edward Timpson: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Children in Care: Asylum

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many care leavers in part or full-time training or employment aged between 19 and 21 in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015 were former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children looked after by the local authority.

Edward Timpson: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Children in Care: Asylum

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many care leavers in part or full-time education other than higher education aged between 19 and 21 in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015 were former unaccompanied asylum-seeking children looked after by the local authority.

Edward Timpson: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Children in Care: Asylum

Stuart C. McDonald: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many care leavers in full or part-time higher education aged between 19 and 21 in (a) 2014 and (b) 2015 were former unaccompanied asylum seeking children looked after by the local authority.

Edward Timpson: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Teachers: Training

Ian Austin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the recruitment target for the Future Teaching Scholars programme is for 2015-16.

Nick Gibb: The Future Teaching Scholars programme is currently recruiting high achieving A level students, with the aim of securing up to 110 scholars to start the programme in the academic year 2016-17.

GCE A-level

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she expects A-level courses in (a) French, (b) German, (c) Spanish, (d) religious studies and (e) geography to be approved by awarding bodies for teaching from September 2016; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Further Education

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 24002, how many steering group meetings of the area reviews of post-16 education and training have taken place in (a) Birmingham and Solihull, (b) Greater Manchester, (c) Sheffield City Region, (d) Tees Valley, (e) Sussex, (f) Solent and (g) West Yorkshire since September 2015; and which such steering group meetings regional schools commissioners attended.

Nick Boles: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

English Baccalaureate

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the cost to the public purse has been of the roll-out of the English Baccalaureate to date; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

English Baccalaureate

Mr Jim Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what submissions she has received from teachers' representatives on the rollout of the English Baccalaureate in the last year; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The Department for Education has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Home Education

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children in England are educated at home; whether those children undertake the national tests that children in schools undertake; and whether checks are made on their parents' qualifications to be home tutors.

Edward Timpson: No data is collected nationally on the number of children educated at home. If a child is educated at home, they can only be entered for National Curriculum Assessments if also registered on the roll of a school in advance.It is not necessary to hold any particular qualification to educate a child at home. Parents have a duty under Section 7 of the Education Act 1996 to ensure that a child educated at home receives a full-time education suitable for their age, ability and aptitudes. Although local authorities have no power to monitor the suitability of education provided at home, they have a duty to identify children who are not receiving a suitable education. Authorities may make informal enquiries about the provision made in the home and the attainment of the child. If an authority is not satisfied that the education provided is suitable, it can initiate a school attendance process.We are taking steps to ensure the system is as robust as it can be when it comes to protecting young people while at the same time safeguarding the right of parents to determine how and when to education their children.

Ministry of Justice

Prisoners: Complaints

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many complaints on what subjects the Independent Monitoring Board of each prison received from prisoners in the last 12 months for which figures are available.

Andrew Selous: Independent Monitoring Boards are individual Arm’s Length Bodies, who publish this information on an establishment by establishment basis, each on a different annual cycle.Information is available from the annual reports submitted by individual Independent Monitoring Boards, which are published on http://www.imb.org.uk/reports/2015-annual-reports/ There is a page towards the end of reports setting out the number of “applications” by prisoners to see the Independent Monitoring Board in that establishment.

Mental Health: Tribunals

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 1 February 2016 to Question 24627, on mental health: tribunals, if he will make it his policy to record this information.

Caroline Dinenage: As noted in my response to PQ 24627, the Ministry of Justice does not hold this information and has no plans to record it.

Internet: Bullying

Ms Margaret Ritchie: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, whether he plans to bring forward legislative proposals to amend further the Criminal Justice Act 2015 in relation to online harassment and internet trolling.

Mike Penning: Legislation that can be used to prosecute online harassment and related offences includes the Protection from Harassment Act 1997; the Malicious Communications Act 1988; and the Communications Act 2003. The Criminal Justice and Courts Act 2015 made changes to the relevant offences in these last two Acts which aim to ensure that people who commit them are prosecuted and properly punished. The Government believes that current legislation is sufficient and does not intend to introduce specific additional legislation to address online harassment and internet trolling.

Internet: Bullying

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) arrests and (b) convictions have been made under section 127 of the Communications Act 2003 in each month since May 2013.

Andrew Selous: The number of offenders found guilty at all courts for offences under Section 127 of the Communication Act 2003, in England and Wales, in each month since May 2013 to December 2014 (the latest available) can be viewed in the attached table. 



Offenders Found Guilty May 2013 - December 2014
(Excel SpreadSheet, 37 KB)

Social Security Benefits: Appeals

Colleen Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many appellants in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England are waiting for the Tribunals Service to list their first-tier tribunal social security and child support appeal in respect of employment and support allowance.

Mr Shailesh Vara: The First-tier Tribunal – Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service, hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions’ decisions on a range of benefits including employment and support allowance (ESA). There are always a number of ‘live’ appeals at the various stages of processing before being listed for a tribunal hearing, and not just those waiting for a listing date to be allocated. The data also includes appeals which may not require a final hearing; have had an initial hearing but have not had a final decision; or are stayed, pending the outcome of other proceedings. As at 30 September 2015 there were a total of 106 ESA appeals waiting to be heard in the Coventry venues; for the West Midlands[1] 783; and for England[2] 11,976. West Midlands includes the venues: Birmingham, Coventry, Hereford, Stoke, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Worcester (Fownes), Kidderminster, Coventry (CMCB), Worcester (Magistrates Court), Hereford (Magistrates Court), Leamington Spa, Nuneaton and WalsallExcludes SSCS Scotland processing centre and the following venues: Aberystwyth, Bridgend, Cardiff, Caernafon, Carmarthen, Colwyn Bay, Cwmbran, Haverfordwest, Llandrindod Wells, Langstone, Llandudno, Llanelli, Llangefni, Llwynypia, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath, Port Talbot, Newtown, Pontypridd, Pontypool, Prestatyn, Swansea, Welshpool, Wrexham, Bargoed and Ebbw ValeData are drawn from a live administrative database. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale recording system and are the best data available.

Social Security Benefits: Appeals

Colleen Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average length of time was for the Tribunals Service to administer a First-tier Tribunal-Social Security and Child Support appeal in respect of (a) personal independence payment, (b) employment and support allowance, (c) income support, (d) jobseeker's allowance and (e) tax credits in (i) Coventry, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) England in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr Shailesh Vara: The First-tier Tribunal – Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service, hears appeals against the Department for Work and Pensions’ decisions on a range of benefits. The table below shows the average length of time to administer appeals in respect of (a) personal independence payment (PIP), (b) employment and support allowance (ESA), (c) income support (IS), (d) jobseeker’s allowance (JSA) and (e) tax credits in (i) Coventry, (ii) the West Midlands and (iii) England between July and September 2015, the latest period for which figures are available. Average length of time (in weeks) to administer appeals between July and September 2015 PIP1ESA2ISJSATax Credits3Coventry  17.918.121.11830.9West Midlands 418.32023.920.833.2England 5  16.518.227.42028.4 Notes:SSCS data are normally registered to the venue nearest to the appellant's home address. We cannot retrieve data based on the appellant’s actual address, but can produce reports detailing the numbers of cases that were dealt with at one of our Regional centres or heard at a specific venue.1. Personal Independence Payment (New Claim Appeals) which replaces Disability Living Allowance was introduced on 8 April 2013, also includes Personal Independence Claims (Reassessments);2. Includes Employment Support Allowance and Employment Support Allowance (Reassessments);3. Includes Working Family Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit;4. West Midlands includes the venues in: Birmingham, Coventry, Hereford, Stoke, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Kidderminster, Leamington Spa, Nuneaton and Walsall; and5. Excludes SSCS Scotland processing centre and the following venues Aberystwyth, Bridgend, Cardiff, Caernafon, Carmarthen, Colwyn Bay, Cwmbran, Haverfordwest, Llandrindod Wells, Langstone, Llandudno, Llanelli, Llangefni, Llwynypia, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath, Port Talbot, Newtown, Pontypridd, Pontypool, Prestatyn, Swansea, Welshpool, Wrexham, Bargoed and Ebbw Vale.Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and are the best data available.

Social Security Benefits: Appeals

Colleen Fletcher: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of appeals to the Tribunals Service from appellants in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England regarding (i) Personal Independence Payment, (ii) employment and support allowance, (iii) income support, (iv) jobseeker's allowance and (v) tax credits were successful in the latest period for which figures are available.

Mr Shailesh Vara: The First-tier Tribunal – Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) administered by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS), hears appeals against Department for Work and Pensions’ decisions on a range of benefits. The table below shows the proportion of appeals which were decided in favour of the appellant in (a) Coventry, (b) the West Midlands and (c) England relating to (i) Personal Independence Payment (PIP), (ii) employment and support allowance (ESA), (iii) income support (IS), (iv) jobseeker's allowance (JSA) and (v) tax credits between July and September 2015, the latest period for which figures are available. Proportion of appeals decided in favour of the appellant between July and September 2015 PIP1ESA2ISJSATax Credits3Coventry69%67%67%23%52%West Midlands 461%52%30%28%49%England 559%57%42%38%49% Notes:SSCS data is normally registered to the venue nearest to the appellant's home address. We cannot retrieve data based on the appellants actual address, but can produce reports detailing the numbers of cases that were dealt with at one of our Regional centres or heard at a specific venue.1. Personal Independence Payment (New Claim Appeals) which replaces Disability Living Allowance was introduced on 8 April 2013, also includes Personal Independence Claims (Reassessments)2. Includes Employment Support Allowance and Employment Support Allowance (Reassessments)3. Includes Working Family Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, Working Tax Credit.4. West Midlands includes the venues: Birmingham, Coventry, Hereford, Stoke, Wolverhampton, Worcester, Shrewsbury, Worcester (Fownes), Kidderminster, Coventry (CMCB), Worcester (Magistrates Court), Hereford (Magistrates Court)5. Excludes SSCS Scotland processing centre and the following venues Aberystwyth, Bridgend, Cardiff, Caernafon, Carmarthen, Colwyn Bay, Cwmbran, Haverfordwest, Llandrindod Wells, Langstone, Llandudno, Llanelli, Llangefni, Llwynypia, Merthyr Tydfil, Neath, Port Talbot, Newtown, Pontypridd, Pontypool, Prestatyn, Swansea, Welshpool, Wrexham, Bargoed and Ebbw ValeAlthough care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and are the best data available.The data may differ slightly to that of the published stats as this data was run on a different date.

Prisoners: Rehabilitation

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, which prisons use animals as part of their rehabilitation schemes; and which animals are used in such schemes.

Andrew Selous: This information can only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Prisoners: Crimes of Violence

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) assaults and (b) serious assaults on prisoners by other prisoners were recorded at HMP Cardiff during each of the last three years.

Andrew Selous: Statistics for assaults on prisoner on prisoner are published on an annual basis by calendar year in the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin annual assaults tables (see table 3.15 at the link below). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/495430/safety-in-custody-assaults-dec-2014.xls. Figures for 2015 are due for publication on 28 April 2016.

Prisoners: Crimes of Violence

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) assaults and (b) serious assaults on prison officers were recorded at HMP Cardiff during each of the last three years.

Andrew Selous: Statistics for assaults on staff by prison are published on an annual basis by calendar year in the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin annual assaults tables (see table 3.15 at the link below). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/495430/safety-in-custody-assaults-dec-2014.xls.

Swansea Prison: Crimes of Violence

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) assaults and (b) serious assaults by prisoners on other prisoners were recorded at HMP Swansea during each of the last three years.

Andrew Selous: Statistics for assaults on prisoner on prisoner are published on an annual basis by calendar year in the Safety in Custody statistics bulletin annual assaults tables (see table 3.15 at the link below). https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/495430/safety-in-custody-assaults-dec-2014.xls.

Prisons: Staff

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, (a) how many and (b) what proportion of prison staff at each band were BAME in (i) 2010 and (ii) the most recent year for which figures are available.

Andrew Selous: Information on the number and proportion of Black, Asian and minority Ethnic prison staff as at (i) 31 December 2010 and (ii) 30 September 2015 (latest available data) is shown in the table below. Table: Number and proportion of BAME staff per band:  Headcount of BAME StaffBAME prison staff as a percentage of staff declaring their ethnicityGrade TypeNOMS Band31 December 201030 September 201531 December 201030 September 2015OperationalBand 25003507.28.8 Band 310307605.55.8 Band 41601204.65 Band 5506064.8 Band 6~~~~ Band 730205.76.1 Band 820206.25.2 Band 910109.812.1 Band 10~~~~ Band 11~~~~ Other~~~~ Total181013405.86.2Non OperationalBand 260406.49.8 Band 33502406.17 Band 4170806.75.1 Band 511010032.815.5 Band 680208.75.2 Band 720306.117.9 Band 830107.78.1 Band 9~~~~ Band 1010~41.2~ Band 11~~~~ Other~~~~ Total8305107.47.7Total 264018606.26.6All figures are rounded to the nearest 10, with numbers ending in 5 rounded to the nearest multiple of 20 to prevent systematic bias. As with all HR databases, extracts are taken at a fixed point in time, to ensure consistency of reporting. However the database itself is dynamic, and where updates to the database are made late, subsequent to the taking of the extract, these updates will not be reflected in figures produced by the extract. For this reason, HR data are unlikely to be precisely accurate, and to present unrounded figures would be to overstate the accuracy of the figures. Rounding to 10 accurately depicts the level of certainty that is held with these figures. Totals are formed from unrounded parts prior to rounding. For this reason, rounded totals may not equal the sum of their rounded parts. ~ denotes suppressed values. Values were suppressed if (i) the values were five or fewer or (ii) ethnicity declaration rates were below 60%. Low numbers are suppressed, in conjunction with the rounding policy to prevent disclosure in accordance with the Data Protection Act, 1998. Staff without a NOMS band include NPS graded staff and Senior Civil Servants.

Cardiff Prison: Drugs

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many prisoners from HMP Cardiff attended A&E departments as a consequence of the use of psychoactive substances in each year from 2013 to 2015.

Andrew Selous: This information is not held centrally and could only be obtained at disproportionate costs.

Offences against Children

Yasmin Qureshi: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when his Department plans to commence section 67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015.

Mike Penning: The Government is committed to commencing section 67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 and will do so as soon as possible.

Juries: Social Security Benefits

Frank Field: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many people called for Jury service were in receipt of (a) jobseeker's allowance, (b) employment and support allowance, (c) income support, (d) working tax credit and (e) child tax credit in the most recent 12 months for which data is available; and what steps he is taking to meet the costs of undertaking jury service for such people.

Mr Shailesh Vara: The information requested is not held. Jury service is an important civic duty. HMCTS is committed to offering support to those called as jurors. Financial provision is made for jurors who are on benefit and for those who suffer loss of earning whilst on jury service. Full details of that provision can be found at: www.gov.uk/jury-service/what-you-can-claim

Legal Aid Scheme: West Midlands

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Duty Provider Crime Contracts have been awarded to companies in (a) the West Midlands, (b) the city of Birmingham and (c) Birmingham, Hodge Hill constituency.

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Duty Provider Crime Contracts have been awarded to BAME firms in (a) the West Midlands, (b) the city of Birmingham and (c) Birmingham, Hodge Hill constituency.

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Duty Provider Crime Contracts have been awarded to women's syndicate firms in (a) the West Midlands, (b) the city of Birmingham and (c) Birmingham, Hodge Hill constituency.

Mr Shailesh Vara: As set out in the Written Ministerial Statement of Thursday 28 January, the crime Tender process has been withdrawn.

Scotland Office

State Retirement Pensions: Females

Margaret Ferrier: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, if he will take steps to provide compensation for people in Scotland who have lost out financially as a result of the increase in the women's pension age.

David Mundell: In-work and out of work working age benefits are available for those who have not yet reached State Pension age. The women affected by the Pensions Act 2011 will reach State Pension age after the introduction of the new State Pension, which will be more generous for those historically worse off under the current system. Further, a £1 billion concession was made, limiting the delay that anyone would experience to their State Pension age to 18 months, relative to the Pensions Act 1995 timetable. This mitigated the effect of the changes for those most affected by the Pensions Act 2011.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

UK City of Culture

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is undertaking to assist local authorities in preparing bids for the 2021 UK City of Culture.

Mr Edward Vaizey: DCMS will issue guidance on bidding for the UK City of Culture 2021 ahead of the competition which will run during 2017 - the year when we will celebrate Hull City of Culture. DCMS will continue to provide advice to interested local authorities and intends to hold an event later this year to explain the process and to generate interest in this exciting opportunity.

Radio Frequencies

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what preparations the Government is making for the auction of 5G spectrum.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Ofcom takes independent decisions on how to assign spectrum. The Government is making spectrum available - including future 5G - through its programme of public sector spectrum release.

Broadband

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, for what reasons the universal service obligation for broadband was set at 10mb; and if he will make it his policy to increase the minimum universal service requirements to reflect higher levels set in other European countries.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The Prime Minister's announcement of the Government's intention to implement a new broadband Universal Service Obligation (USO) and our ambition to set this at 10Mbps, followed assessments of consumers' broadband needs from a range of sources, including Ofcom's annual infrastructure reports. This new broadband USO will give people the legal right to request an affordable broadband connection, at a minimum speed, up to a reasonable cost threshold, no matter where they live.

Radio Frequencies

Drew Hendry: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that all areas of the UK benefit from the award of 2.3 and 3.4 GHz spectrum bands.

Mr Edward Vaizey: The 2.3 and 3.4 GHz spectrum bands are being made available across the UK as part of the Government's programme of public sector spectrum release. Ofcom takes independent decisions on how to assign spectrum, including whether and how to auction it and the conditions of licences granted. The licence obligation on Telefonica together with the Government's 2014 agreement with mobile network operators means that by the end of 2017 95% of premises in Scotland will have indoor 4G coverage and complete not-spots for voice and SMS text will halve.

UK City of Culture: Kingston upon Hull

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, on what the £1 million funding provided to the City of Hull to create a legacy as part of its status as the 2017 UK City of Culture was spent.

Mr Edward Vaizey: Of the £1 million extra funding announced in November 2015, half will support the Hull Culture Company to make the 2017 City of Culture year a sucess, and to produce benefits for the local community beyond 2017, ensuring that arts and culture remain at the heart of the local authority's strategy, and encouraging young people and hard to reach groups to engage with the artistic programme. The remaining 0.5m of this funding will support the promotion and management of the UK City of Culture 2021 competition. DCMS is investing £1.5 million in the Ferens Gallery to help them host the Turner Prize that year, and the Gallery will receive a further £0.5m from ACE for refurbishment. Arts Council England is also providing £3.1 million to three ACE-funded organisations -Artlink, Freedom Festival and Hull Truck Theatre - that will play a key role in the 2017 events. Hull Museums, now among ACE's Major Partner Museums, have been awarded £2.5m between now and 2018; and an extra £3 million from ACE will help raise the profile of culture in the city and promote new partnerships throughout 2017. This amounts to over £11 million and does not include additional investment that may come from other bodies such as the BBC.

Legal Costs

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when he will implement section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act 2013 on awards of costs; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Edward Vaizey: As the Secretary of State said on his speech to the Society of Editors on 19th October 2015, "I am not convinced the time is right for the introduction of these costs provisions. Given the changes under way within the industry, the introduction of the new exemplary damages provisions, and the pressures on the industry, I question whether this additional step, now, will be positive and will lead to the changes I want to see". The Government is continuing to consider the matter.

Arts Council England

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what estimate his Department has made of the income that Arts Council of England will receive from National Lottery funding in (a) 2016-17, (b) 2017-18, (c) 2018-19 and (d) 2019-20.

Mr Edward Vaizey: As Good Cause income is dependent on sales, we can not provide precise figures for future forecasts; figures are a guide to likely overall income if sales remain at levels at the time of the review. However, Arts Council England’s annual share of income to the National Lottery Distribution Fund is estimated to be £255 million for each year from 2016/17 to 2019/20.

BBC: Royal Charters

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what discussions he has had with the BBC on an extension of the current BBC Charter period by order of the Queen in Council.

Mr Edward Vaizey: I and my officials continue to have an ongoing dialogue with the BBC regarding the content and process of the BBC Charter Review.

Digital Technology

Maria Eagle: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, when his Department plans to publish the UK Digital Strategy.

Mr Edward Vaizey: We plan to publish the Digital Strategy in early 2016. The Minister for the Digital Economy launched a public call for ideas on 29 December. We are now analysing these responses, and we continue to work closely with Whitehall departments on the Strategy.

Department for Work and Pensions

Pensioners: Poverty

Adam Afriyie: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the effect of the triple lock pension policy of the number of pensioners living in poverty in (a) Windsor, (b) the South East and (c) the UK.

Justin Tomlinson: While we can’t draw a direct link between the triple lock and pensioner poverty, pensioner poverty is at one of the lowest rates since records began. Pensioners are less likely to be in relative and absolute low income after housing costs than the population as a whole. The Government continues to support the poorest pensioners and from April 2016, Pension Credit will top up income to a guaranteed minimum level of £155.60 for a single person and £237.55 for couples.The Government wants all pensioners to have a decent and secure income in retirement. We are committed to the triple lock, the guarantee that the basic State Pension will increase by the highest of the growth in average earnings, price increase or 2.5%. From April 2016, the basic State Pension will be over £1,100 a year higher than at the start of the last Parliament. This will benefit many of the 18,000 recipients of State Pension in Windsor, the 1.7 million recipients in the South East and the 13 million recipients in the UK.

Housing Benefit: Reviews

Neil Gray: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the contribution made by the hon. Member for Great Yarmouth on 27 January 2015, Official Report, column 259, what the terms for the one year review of cuts to housing benefit will be.

Justin Tomlinson: The evidence review commissioned by the Department will work closely with charities, landlords stakeholders etc. and will look at the shape, scale and cost of the supported housing sector.

Personal Independence Payment: Brighton

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information he holds on the average length of time allocated for face-to-face appointments for personal independence payment claimants attending the Queen's Road assessment centre in Brighton; and if he will make a statement.

Justin Tomlinson: DWP does not set a time limit for face-to-face assessments. Consultations take as long as necessary in order to reach the evidence-based conclusions on individual cases. Atos Healthcare assumes for scheduling purposes an average length of 1.5 hours for the Health Professional to see the claimant and to write up the report.

Supported Housing: Warrington

Helen Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an assessment of the proportion of the actual cost of living in supported accommodation that will be met by discretionary housing payments in Warrington when housing benefit us capped at the rate of local housing allowance.

Justin Tomlinson: The information is not available.

Department for Work and Pensions: Legal Costs

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what his Department's legal costs were in the case Susan Rutherford, Paul Rutherford and Warren Todd and Appellant A v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions.

Justin Tomlinson: The Government has incurred approximately £50,626 in legal costs in the Court of Appeal proceedings in the case of Rutherford and others v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and A v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2016] EWCA CIV 29. It should be noted that this figure includes VAT where this is payable (e.g. on Counsel’s fees) but does not include costs attributable to the time spent by Government advisory lawyers on this case, as time spent by such advisory lawyers is not recorded in a manner that allows it to be attributed to individual cases.

Supported Housing: Local Housing Allowance

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 28 January 2016 to Questions 24029 and 24048, what (a) financial assessment, (b) cost-benefit assessment and (c) impact assessment his Department has carried out on the proposal to cap the cost of local housing allowance for people living in sheltered and supported housing.

Justin Tomlinson: The policy is still under development and full impact and equality assessments will be undertaken in due course.

Universal Credit

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of the cost resulting from the reduction in the work allowance of universal credit relates to (a) new claimants to universal credit, (b) current recipients of universal credit and (c) current tax credit recipients naturally migrated onto universal credit.

Priti Patel: This information is not available.

Universal Credit: Transitional Arrangements

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the Government plans to provide transitional protection for tax credit recipients who have been naturally migrated onto universal credit.

Priti Patel: Natural migration occurs where people have had a significant change of circumstances that would previously have triggered a new claim to benefits or tax credits. They would always have had their entitlement recalculated based on a new set of rules. That principle is maintained in Universal Credit, and therefore transitional protection is not appropriate. Universal Credit is already proving better than the system it replaces with claimants moving into work faster and earning more. It also provides a seamless taper as well as better support for childcare.

Carer's Allowance: Earnings Limits

Kirsten  Oswald: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the oral contribution of 7 December 2015, Official Report, column 699, if he will place in the Library summary information on (a) earnings limits for recipients of carer's allowance and (b) the means by which claimants of that allowance are advised of those limits.

Justin Tomlinson: Claimants who go online can find a summary of the Carer’s Allowance earnings rules on GOV.UK - https://www.gov.uk/carers-allowance/eligibility. Those people who want to make their claim in writing are sent similar information on earnings with their claim pack. In addition, the letter claimants get when they are awarded Carer’s Allowance informs them of the need to report employment to the department and they are reminded of the need to report earnings and the relevant limits in the annual “uprating” letter.

Universal Credit

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, under what change of circumstances a tax credit claimant will naturally be migrated onto universal credit.

Priti Patel: The events that can trigger a change of circumstances depend on many factors. They are similar to the circumstances that would trigger a new claim to existing benefits or tax credits, which would also lead to a recalculation of entitlement.

Universal Credit: Housing Benefit

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of times a universal credit claimant has been paid housing benefit and housing costs at the same time resulting in an overpayment of housing benefit.

Priti Patel: The information could only be obtained at a disproportionate cost.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants his Department estimates will have moved on to universal credit by the end of 2017.

Priti Patel: The number of people on benefits is driven by a range of factors. Because of this, the programme measures progress by the successful achievement of milestones of its delivery plan rather than targets for numbers of claimants.

Universal Credit

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, following changes to universal credit taking effect in April 2016, what assessment his Department has made of the effect on the number of children in poverty of the introduction of universal credit.

Priti Patel: The Government is committed to working to eliminate child poverty and improve life chances for children. Work remains the best route out of poverty, and Universal Credit is designed to strengthen incentives for parents to move into and progress in work. Evidence shows claimants move into work significantly faster and earn more than under the current system. In addition, from April 2016 Universal Credit provides for 85% of childcare costs meaning more support for hardworking families.

Social Security Benefits: Telephone Services

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23991, whether calls to make a claim for benefit are free for all (a) pay-as-you-go mobile telephones, (b) monthly contract mobile telephones and (c) landline telephones.

Justin Tomlinson: All benefit new claims lines have 0800 numbers and are therefore free whether claimants call from mobile phones or landlines, with the exception of Universal Credit which has an 0345 number as the expectation is that claims are made online.

Pension Protection Fund

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will implement the provisions of the Pensions Act 2014 on removal of the cap to the Pension Protection Fund.

Justin Tomlinson: The Government is committed to the implementation of the PPF long service cap. Before the primary legislation can be brought into force, a number of changes need to be made to secondary legislation, so that it will operate as expected in all cases. Therefore we cannot, at this time, commit to a particular implementation date.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Flood Control: Finance

Caroline Lucas: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 16 November 2015 to Question 16031, how much the Environment Agency spent directly on maintaining flood defences in (a) 2010-11, (b) 2011-12, (c) 2012-13 and (d) 2013-14; and how much the agency projects it will spend on such defences in (i) 2015-16, (ii) 2016-17, (iii) 2017-18, (iv) 2018-19 and (v) 2019-20.

Rory Stewart: An error has been identified in the written answer given on 18 December 2015.The correct answer should have been:

The table below shows how much the Environment Agency spent directly on maintaining flood defences in the years requested: Allocation £m2010/112011/122012/132013/142014/15Asset Management168156169147171 The Government has confirmed that flood maintenance funding will be protected in real terms for the duration of this Parliament.In addition to the maintenance spend, a further £2.3 Billion will be invested in flood defences in the next six years, providing better protection to over 300,000 households.

Rory Stewart: The table below shows how much the Environment Agency spent directly on maintaining flood defences in the years requested: Allocation £m2010/112011/122012/132013/142014/15Asset Management168156169147171 The Government has confirmed that flood maintenance funding will be protected in real terms for the duration of this Parliament.In addition to the maintenance spend, a further £2.3 Billion will be invested in flood defences in the next six years, providing better protection to over 300,000 households.

Floods

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of the total spending allocation her Department has made to supporting communities affected by recent floods has been spent to date.

Rory Stewart: Defra is administering a Farming Recovery Fund to support farmers affected by the flooding. Further support to communities is available through the Communities and Business Recovery Scheme provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government. Farmers affected by flooding will be able to claim grants of between £500 and £20,000 to cover the cost of restoring their farmland. The RPA will pay out on all eligible claims. The deadline for Fund applications is 1 April 2016.

Members: Correspondence

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to respond to the letter from the hon. Member for Leeds North West of 12 January 2016 on meeting hon. Members with constituencies along the River Wharfe.

Rory Stewart: The Secretary of State received five letters in January from the hon. Member for Leeds North West about the recent flooding in Leeds. The Secretary of State met him and all Members for Leeds constituencies on 20 January to discuss the flooding in Leeds, as well as flood defences on the nearby River Aire (to which the River Wharfe is a tributary). The Secretary of State will be responding to the specific points raised by the hon. Member for Leeds North West within the next week. In the meantime, I can confirm that I am happy to meet MPs with constituencies along the River Wharfe

Plastic Bags

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what estimate her Department has made of the reduction in single-use plastic carrier bag usage in England since the carrier bag charge was introduced.

Rory Stewart: Retailers are required to provide data for the first reporting period ending 6 April 2016 by 31 May 2016. Any assessment the department makes on the reduction of single use carrier bags will be after that point. In December, Tesco reported a 78% reduction in the number of single-use carrier bags distributed since the introduction of the charge. They also reported an increase of nearly 50% in the number of online shoppers selecting ‘bagless’ deliveries.

Pollinators

Johnny Mercer: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the National Pollinator Strategy since its introduction.

George Eustice: In November 2015 Defra published an implementation plan highlighting progress in the first year of the National Pollinator Strategy. As an example, over half of mid–tier applications to our new £900 million Countryside Stewardship scheme, launched in July 2015, contain the Wild Pollinator and Farm Wildlife Package. Monitoring and evaluation of the scheme will include measures to establish the impact on pollinators. The Strategy has also taken steps to promote public awareness and engagement, including holding the first Pollinator Awareness Week in July 2015.

Flood Control: Agriculture

Robert Jenrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, how many acres of farmland she plans will be protected by government investment in flood defences over the next six years.

Elizabeth Truss: As a result of the Government’s £2.3 billion, six year capital investment programme more than 420,000 acres of farmland will be better protected by 2021.Together with our investment in the last parliament this means that more than a million acres of farmland will be better protected from flooding over this decade.

National Wildlife Crime Unit: Finance

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make it her policy to continue funding the National Wildlife Crime Unit.

Rory Stewart: The Government remains committed to tackling wildlife crime.We are currently allocating our Spending Review settlement. Future funding for the National Wildlife Crime Unit will be decided as part of that process.

Milk: Prices

Steven Paterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on ensuring that farmers receive a fair price for milk.

George Eustice: We continue to support our hard-working dairy farmers by reducing inspections, extending the system of tax averaging, and opening new export markets. The £26.2 million aid package we secured from the European Commission has helped to provide some immediate relief. A number of supermarkets have also pledged to pay a premium over and above the current market price.

Flood Control: Earby

Andrew Stephenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment she has made of the adequacy of flood defences in Earby.

Rory Stewart: May I pay tribute to the community of Earby and their fortitude following the terrible floods this Christmas. We have been working closely with the local community and partners in Earby to investigate options for reducing the risk from all sources of flooding. We have allocated £50,000 to this study. The study will also update the flood map for Earby, improve flood warning and improve planning decisions. In addition to this, the Environment Agency is carrying out £500k of work to repair and reduce the risk of blockage of the Victoria Clough culvert.

Department for Communities and Local Government

Housing: Fire Prevention

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many home fire safety checks were completed by fire and rescue services in 2013-14.

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many visits fire and rescue services made to schools in 2013-14.

Mike Penning: Holding answer received on 29 October 2015



I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Office.Fire and rescue services reported that they undertook around 627,000 Home Fire Safety checks during 2013-14.Data are also collected on fire safety campaigns and initiatives. These include, but do not separate out, schools visits.

Young People: Crime Prevention

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many Youth Diversion events were undertaken by English fire and rescue services in 2013-14.

Mike Penning: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Office.Fire and rescue services in England reported almost 24,300 visits which they defined as “fire setter and anti-social behaviour schemes and other youth diversion visits” in 2013/14, although not all services were able to provide figures. They also reported almost 24,000 visits defined as “other youth fire safety programmes”.

Fire Prevention

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many statutory Fire Safety Inspections were carried out by English fire and rescue services in 2013-14.

Mike Penning: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Office.Fire and rescue services carried out almost 67,300 Fire Safety Audits / Inspections in 2013/14.

Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service: Standards

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average response time to dwelling fires was for Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service in 2013-14.

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average response time to dwelling fires was for Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service in 2013-14.

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average response time to dwelling fires was for Cheshire Fire and Rescue Service in 2013-14.

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average response time to dwelling fires was for Cumbria Fire and Rescue Service in 2013-14.

Liz McInnes: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average response time to dwelling fires was for West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service in 2013-14.

Mike Penning: Holding answer received on 08 December 2015



I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Office.Information on average response times to dwelling fires for each fire and rescue service and for each year is available in Table 3b of the Department’s Fire incidents response times: England publication at:https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/fire-incidents-response-times-england-2014-to-2015

Fire Services: Floods

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what arrangements have been made to ensure that fire cover remains available whilst fire crews are responding to major floods.

Mike Penning: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Office.The Civil Contingencies Act 2004 requires that fire and rescue services have plans in place, working with local partners, to deal with emergencies such as flooding, and to ensure that the appropriate level of resource is available. Fire and rescue authorities are also required by the statutory Fire and Rescue National Framework for England to produce Integrated Risk Management Plans which identify the full range of risks to which an authority’s service is expected to respond, and to consult the local community on those plans.In addition, fire and rescue authorities’ mutual aid arrangements are well established under Section 13 and Section 16 of the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004. These arrangements ensure continuity of service provision across authority boundaries, through mutual assistance from supporting authorities and other agencies other than the host fire and rescue authorities. The National Coordination and Advisory Framework, a collaborative arrangement between the Government, the Chief Fire and Rescue Adviser and Chief Fire Officers Association, is in place to both support and supplement these arrangements.

Fire Services: Floods

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what discussions he and his ministerial colleagues have had with the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the creation of a statutory duty on firefighters in England and Wales to respond to flooding.

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to introduce a statutory duty for the fire and rescue service to respond to a major flooding incident; and if he will make a statement.

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what representations he has received on introducing a statutory duty on the fire and rescue service to respond to major flooding; and if he will make a statement.

Mike Penning: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Office.Both the Civil Contingencies Act 2004 and the Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004 detail the roles and powers of fire and rescue authorities, in respect of both emergency response and rescue in a wide range of situations, including from flooding. Fire and rescue authorities are expected to undertake integrated risk management planning, dovetailed with the community risk register overseen by the Local Resilience Forum (a multi-agency grouping of which fire and rescue authorities are key members). Integrated Risk Management Plans identify the full range of risks that an authority’s service is expected to respond to and are subject to consultation. The National Fire Framework published in July 2012 and given statutory effect in August 2012 makes this clear and I believe that fire and rescue authorities are fully competent to deliver on this.The Government has had no recent representations on this arrangement and in light of how well fire services have responded to recent flooding suggests there is no need for review.

Fire Services

Ian Lavery: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the effect reductions in public spending have had on the ability of fire and rescue services to respond to floods and other emergencies as a result of Storm Desmond.

Mike Penning: I have been asked to reply on behalf of the Home Office.The Government has been in constant contact with local responders and over 22 Fire and Rescue Services have provided mutual aid to areas with support from others including the RNLI. The Government has activated the Bellwin Scheme, funding which supports local authorities in the costs associated with an emergency response.

Families: Disadvantaged

Mr Stewart Jackson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the progress made by the Troubled Families initiative in the Peterborough City Council area since 2011; and if he will make a statement.

Greg Clark: Holding answer received on 29 January 2016



The Troubled Families Programme in the Peterborough City Council area helped produce successful outcomes with 450 troubled families. This was assessed according to whether children were attending school, youth crime and anti-social behaviour had been reduced, and adults from troubled families were helped off out-of-work benefits and into continuous employment.Under the provisions of the Welfare Reform and Work Bill, I will be reporting on the progress of the Troubled Families Programme annually.

Local Plans

Oliver Dowden: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department provides to local planning authorities on whether (a) a Local Plan and (b) other local planning policies can be amended following the granting of planning permission on appeal for substantive development.

Brandon Lewis: The National Planning Policy Framework says that Local Plans can be reviewed in whole or in part to respond flexibly to changing circumstances. Our planning guidance also indicates that a local planning authority should review the relevance of the Local Plan at regular intervals to assess whether some or all of it may need updating. It is for the local planning authority to decide whether and when to review its planning policies.

Green Belt

Oliver Dowden: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department has issued on whether the existence of extant planning permission for development in the Green Belt would count as exceptional circumstances to permit a planning application for an alternative, less intrusive form of development in that location.

Oliver Dowden: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what guidance his Department issues to local authorities on (a) a Local Development Order and (b) Supplementary Planning Guidance to facilitate alternative, less intrusive development on a specific location in the Green Belt where there is already extant planning permission for development in that location.

Brandon Lewis: An extant planning permission does not prevent consideration of a further planning application for the same site. It would be for the local authority to assess each proposal on its merits, in the light of all material considerations, including the protections for Green Belt set out in our National Planning Policy Framework. If the development proposed would be inappropriate in Green Belt, the Framework states that planning permission should generally be refused. However, if the local authority finds that any harms caused by the development would be clearly outweighed by other considerations, and that very special circumstances justify planning permission, permission may be granted. If necessary the local authority can impose planning conditions or require design changes to mitigate any adverse impact.A Local Development Order or Supplementary Planning Guidance would also have to be designed by the local authority to accord with policies in the Framework, including the need to protect the openness of Green Belt land.

Private Rented Housing: Repairs and Maintenance

Greg Mulholland: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what progress he has made on empowering tenants in the private rented sector to ensure landlords carry out reasonable repairs.

Brandon Lewis: On 1 February 2016 we issued a new Model Tenancy Agreement and updated our How to Rent Guide which makes clear landlord responsibilities in terms of carrying out repairs. The vast majority of landlords in the private rented sector provide good quality and well managed accommodation. We know that 84% of private renters are satisfied with their accommodation, and stay in their homes for an average of 3 and a half years.If a tenant feels that the property they are renting is unsafe, and the landlord fails to get the necessary repairs done, they should contact their local authority which has powers, under the Housing Act 2004, to assess the risks and hazards. If a property is found to contain serious (category 1) hazards, the local authority has a duty to take the most appropriate action, which could range from trying to deal with the problems informally at first to prohibiting the use of the whole or part of the dwelling.The Housing and Planning Bill contains measures to tackle rogue landlords who rent out sub-standard accommodation. Proposals include a database of rogue landlords and property agents, introducing banning orders for serious or repeat offenders, a tougher fit and proper person test, extending Rent Repayment Orders and introducing civil penalties.

Regional Planning and Development: Greater Manchester

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Greater Manchester Combined Authority is legally required to consult all councillors in the 10 metropolitan district councils on the sites identified in the draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework Development Plan.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether the Greater Manchester Combined Authority is legally required to consult the public on the sites identified in the draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework Development Plan.

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will meet the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish to discuss the consultation process for the draft Greater Manchester Spatial Framework Development Plan.

James Wharton: The Association of Greater Manchester Authorities is currently involved in the preparation of a Greater Manchester Spatial Framework Development Plan working with the 10 metropolitan councils in the Greater Manchester Combined Authority’s area. We understand that this is intended to become a joint development plan document.A local authority may arrange for the discharge of any of its functions by a committee, sub-committee, an officer or by any other local authority. The ten local authorities have delegated responsibility for the “coordination” of the Greater Manchester Strategic Framework to Association of Greater Manchester Authorities Executive Board, a committee of the Combined Authority. Under these current arrangements, it is for each individual authority to decide how to engage its members in the production of the document.Each local planning authority must also comply with section 18 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004, which requires them to prepare a Statement of Community Involvement which should explain how they will engage local communities and other interested parties in producing development plan documents and determining planning applications. This should be published on the local planning authority’s website and it is the authority’s responsibility to ensure that any Development Plan Document is prepared in accordance with it.It would not be appropriate for me to meet to discuss the detail of a plan in preparation.

Sleeping Rough

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what specific funding has been allocated to provide support for rough sleepers in each year since 2010.

Mr Marcus Jones: The Government is committed to protecting the most vulnerable in society. Over the last Parliament, we invested over £500 million to enable local authorities and the voluntary sector to support the most vulnerable in society, including rough sleepers, by preventing and tackling homelessness in their local areas.Some specific initiatives that targeted rough sleeping includes:Rolling out No Second Night Out across England through the £20 million Homelessness Transition Fund(2011-12 to 2013-14). Over two-thirds of rough sleepers in 20 key areas outside London did not spend a second night on the streets.Investing £5 million in the world’s first homelessness Social Impact Bond(2013-14 to 2016-17), run by the Greater London Authority to turn around the lives of 830 of London’s most entrenched rough sleepers. Over half have achieved accommodation, employment or reconnection outcomes.Investing £1 million to support the StreetLink service(2012-13 to 2015-16), a website, app and telephone line that allows members of the public to connect rough sleepers into local support services. Over 17,000 rough sleepers have been found and helped since December 2012.Investing £8 million in the Help for Single Homeless Fund (2014-15 to 2015-16) to improve services for vulnerable single homeless people, including rough sleepers. 34 successful projects in 168 local areas are supporting around 22,000 individuals.Supporting local areas to improve the quality of hostels through the Homelessness Change Programme(2012-2015), which provided £42.5 million of capital funding for new and refurbished bed spaces and facilities to provide meaningful activities to support pathways to independent living.But one person without a home is one too many, which is why we will increase central investment over the next four years to £139 million for innovative programmes to prevent and reduce homelessness and rough sleeping. We also want to help local authorities provide advice and assistance to those at risk of homelessness which is why we have protected the homelessness prevention funding for local authorities through the provisional local government finance settlement, totalling £315 million by 2019-20.The Government will continue to work closely with the voluntary sector and local authorities on how we improve the impact of homelessness services and break the cycle of homelessness.

Air Pollution

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to strengthen planning regulations in respect of air quality considerations when a planning application falls within an Air Quality Action Plan.

James Wharton: There are already strong protections in place to safeguard people from unacceptable risks from air pollution with particular recognition given to Air Quality Management Areas in national planning policy. The National Planning Policy Framework expects local planning policies to sustain compliance with and contribute to EU limit values or national objectives for pollutants, taking account the presence of Air Quality Management Areas. The Framework is also clear that planning decisions should ensure that any new development in Air Quality Management Areas is consistent with the local air quality action plan.

Right to Buy Scheme: Housing Associations

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 29 January 2016 to Question 23606, if he will estimate the proportion of housing association tenants that will become eligible for Right to Buy in each of the next three years.

Brandon Lewis: The Government is working with the National Housing Federation and the sector on the implementation of the voluntary agreement, which will make Right to Buy equivalent discounts available to 1.3 million housing association tenants. Ahead of full implementation, on the 25 November, we launched a pilot scheme with five housing associations, which will inform the design and delivery of the main Voluntary Right to Buy scheme.

Local Authorities: Trade Unions

Jim McMahon: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how many local authorities have requested (a) the removal of and (b) increased flexibility for trades union facilitation time since 2010.

Mr Marcus Jones: There is no requirement for local councils to request such flexibility. However, to ensure that local taxpayers can see and compare the level of funding and support, including facility time, given to unions, the Government now requires councils to annually publish this information on their websites.

Local Government: Constituencies

Mr Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, whether he plans to respond to people in Moseley in Birmingham who have written to him to express their opposition to proposed boundary changes; and if he will take their views into account in considering such changes.

Mr Marcus Jones: People who have written to the Secretary of State about the electoral review in Birmingham have received a response explaining that the Secretary of State has no role in this matter which, in accordance with the statute, is being undertaken by the independent Local Government Boundary Commission for England. This Commission is a Parliamentary body which will lay before Parliament a draft of any Order it intends to make to implement the electoral review; the Commission will consider any representations it receives about the review before laying such an Order.

Mortgages: Greater London

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average size of mortgages in each London borough was in (a) 2010 and (b) the last year for which figures are available.

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average age was of first time buyers was in each London borough in (a) 2010 and (b) the last year for which figures are available.

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the average monthly mortgage payment per household was in (a) London and (b) each London borough in each year since 2010.

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what was the average deposit paid by first time buyers was in each London borough in (a) 2010 and (b) the last year for which figures are available.

Brandon Lewis: The Department does not record or collect this information at London borough level.

Social Services: Expenditure

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the change was in real terms expenditure on social care (a) overall and (b) per 1,000 head of population aged 65 or over in each local authority between 2010 and 2015.

Mr Marcus Jones: Expenditure on adult social care, in 2010-11 (adjusted to real terms) and 2014-15 (the latest year for which figures are available), for each local authority in England, is attached.It is not possible, from the data available, to dis-aggregate adult social care expenditure for the age range requested.Due to differences in definition and changes to the responsibility of service provision between the NHS and local government, it is not possible to compare figures for 2010-11 with 2014-15. In particular, prior to the introduction of the Public Health Grant, elements of public health expenditure may have been classified as adult social care expenditure within the relevant statistical returns.



Table
(Excel SpreadSheet, 18.67 KB)

Social Services: Children

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the change in real terms spending on children's service (a) overall and (b) per 1,000 head of population aged 0 to 19 was in each local authority between 2010 and 2015.

Mr Marcus Jones: Expenditure on children’s social care, in 2010-11 (adjusted to real terms) and 2014-15 (the latest year for which figures are available), for each local authority in England, is attached.Data on children’s social care expenditure is not collected for the age range requested.Due to differences in definition, it is not possible to compare figures for 2010-11 with 2014-15. In particular, elements of services to young people are now included within education expenditure. 



Table
(Excel SpreadSheet, 18.86 KB)

Homelessness: Ethnic Groups

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what the change in the number of BME households who have (a) applied and (b) been accepted for homeless status was in each region and constituent nation of the UK between 2010 and 2015.

Mr Marcus Jones: The available information on homelessness decisions taken and acceptances for each region in England for each financial year from 2004/05 to 2014/15 is given in the attached table.Information for other parts of the UK are a matter for the devolved Administrations.



Table
(Word Document, 26.82 KB)

Right to Buy Scheme: Publicity

Tim Farron: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, how much his Department spent on advertising the Right to Buy scheme for council and housing association tenants in each month from October 2015 to January 2016.

Brandon Lewis: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him on 2 December 2015, PQ 18460.At that time, Right to Buy campaign spend figures for October and November were provisional as the campaign was still running. Confirmed monthly expenditure from October to December 2015 is as follows:October - £155,001November - £171,066December - £142,656Figures for January 2016 are still be finalised so are not yet available.

Reoffenders: Young People

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what assessment he has made of the success rates of the troubled families programme in reducing re-offending among young adults.

Greg Clark: The Department for Communities and Local Government has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Ministry of Defence

Russia: NATO

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions the Government has had with NATO on reductions to the number of Russian nuclear strike missiles.

Mark Lancaster: My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Michael Fallon) has had no recent discussions with NATO regarding reductions to the number of Russian nuclear strike missiles. However, the US provides annual reports on progress made under the Treaty for the Further Reduction and Limitation of Strategic Offensive Arms, which is known as the New START Treaty.

Islamic State

Mr David Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what support his Department is providing to Christian militias in the fight against Daesh in Iraq and Syria.

Penny Mordaunt: We are not providing support on the basis of faith or religion. In Iraq, our focus has been on the Iraqi security forces, including the Kurdish Peshmerga, to whom we have provided training in infantry skills and tactics to counter improvised explosive devices. We have also provided medical training. In Syria, we have delivered over £4 million of life-saving equipment to moderate opposition groups including communications, medical and logistics equipment, and protection against chemical weapons attacks.

Aircraft Carriers: Construction

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the country of manufacture was of the non-British steel used in the construction of (a) HMS Queen Elizabeth and (b) HMS Prince of Wales.

Mr Philip Dunne: Of the 82,000 tonnes of steel procured for the construction of the Queen Elizabeth Class Carriers, 77,000 tonnes was sourced from Tata Steel using their UK steel mills and processed in the UK by Dent Steel. The remaining 5,000 tonnes of specialised steel, not available from UK steel plants, was procured from Turkey (4,500 tonnes) and Spain (500 tonnes).

Type 45 Destroyers

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the total cost was of alterations and refits to the six naval Type 45 destroyers to ensure they are fit for purpose.

Mr Philip Dunne: A number of measures to improve the reliability of the Type 45 Power and Propulsion systems have been identified. A programme was established in 2014 to implement these changes and continues to deliver positive results. In addition, and as announced in the Strategic Defence and Secuity Review 2015, we are planning to improve system resilience by adding upgraded diesel generators to provide further electrical generation capacity . Alternative technical options and a variety of delivery models are currently being explored with several competing industrial partners.The total cost and timetable of implementing the diesel generator upgrade will be determined at the main investment decision. To reveal our current estimates would prejudice the commercial interests of the Department.

Type 45 Destroyers: Deployment

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for how many days (a) HMS Daring, (b) HMS Dauntless, (c) HMS Diamond, (d) HMS Dragon, (e) HMS Defender and (f) HMS Duncan were deployed on operations in which theatre in the most recent year for which data is available.

Mr Philip Dunne: HMS Dauntless, HMS Duncan and HMS Defender all deployed to the Gulf in 2015 for 133, 270 and 69 days respectively. HMS Dauntless and HMS Duncan completed their deployments as planned and HMS Defender's deployment to the region, which began in October 2015, is continuing.Throughout the year all Type 45 ships would have undertaken activities such as sea trials, training, engagement, provisioning or been in a maintenance period.

Type 45 Destroyers

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many operational defects (a) HMS Daring, (b) HMS Dauntless, (c) HMS Diamond, (d) HMS Dragon, (e) HMS Defender and (f) HMS Duncan have reported in each of the last six years.

Mr Philip Dunne: All complex systems suffer defects and require maintenance throughout their life, and warships are no exception. Operational Defects (OPDEFS) can vary in their categorisation and severity, covering minor ancillary components to major defects. The OPDEF process only applies to Ships in operational service, and I have therefore supplied the numbers for full years for Type 45 ships since their Commissioning. TOTAL OPDEFS ON TYPE 45 SHIPS IN THE LAST SIX YEARS 201020112012201320142015HMS DaringNA186184278163156HMS DauntlessNANA239244262150HMS DiamondNANA251220182165HMS DefenderNANA209224202209HMS DragonNANA260268235124HMS DuncanNANANA168181241 We would not release more detailed information related to these figures as this would allow deductions to be made about a ship's capability and may affect operational security.

Type 45 Destroyers: Repairs and Maintenance

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for how many days (a) HMS Daring, (b) HMS Dauntless, (c) HMS Diamond, (d) HMS Dragon, (e) HMS Defender and (f) HMS Duncan underwent (i) planned maintenance and (ii) repair work in each of the last six years.

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what amount was spent on the maintenance and repair of (a) HMS Daring, (b) HMS Dauntless, (c) HMS Diamond, (d) HMS Dragon, (e) HMS Defender and (f) HMS Duncan for (i) planned maintenance and (ii) repair work in each of the last six years.

Mr Philip Dunne: The amount spent on Maintenance and Repair for the six Type 45 Destroyers is detailed in the table below rounded to the nearest half million:  Name of ShipIn-Service DateMaintenance/Repair Cost (£ million)HMS DARINGJuly 2010Programmed Maintenance£7Unprogrammed Work/Repair£4.5HMS DAUNTLESSNovember 2010Programmed Maintenance£4.5Unprogrammed Work/Repair£4.5HMS DIAMONDJuly 2011Programmed Maintenance£9.5Unprogrammed Work/Repair£3.5HMS DRAGONApril 2012Programmed Maintenance£7Unprogrammed Work/Repair£2HMS DEFENDERMarch 2013Programmed Maintenance£2Unprogrammed Work/Repair£3HMS DUNCANDecember 2013Programmed Maintenance£1.5Unprogrammed Work/Repair£2   The table below reflects the number of planned maintenance days per ship over the six year period. Repair work on individual ship systems takes place during both planned maintenance periods and operational deployments and data relating to the number of days’ worth of repair work is not collected. Unprogrammed work/repair figures shown cover the extension of maintenance periods. Name of ShipIn-Service DateMaintenance/ Repair DurationHMS DARINGJuly 2010Programmed Maintenance360Unprogrammed Work/Repair105HMS DAUNTLESSNovember 2010Programmed Maintenance215Unprogrammed Work/Repair20HMS DIAMONDJuly 2011Programmed Maintenance350Unprogrammed Work/Repair0HMS DRAGONApril 2012Programmed Maintenance250Unprogrammed Work/Repair0HMS DEFENDERMarch 2013Programmed Maintenance100Unprogrammed Work/Repair0HMS DUNCANDecember 2013Programmed Maintenance130Unprogrammed Work/Repair0

Warships: Construction

Stephen Doughty: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of steel used in the manufacture of (a) Scout, (b) the Type 26 Frigate, (c) the new Tide Class Tankers and (d) the new Offshore Patrol vessels is manufactured in the UK.

Mr Philip Dunne: Steel is sourced by our contractors from a range of UK and international suppliers. UK suppliers have provided significant quantities of steel for major defence procurement programmes whenever they have been able to meet specified standards.The steel requirement for the AJAX (formerly Scout) Armoured Fighting Vehicle is specialist in nature which UK manufacturers were not able to provide and has been sourced to date from a overseas supplier. There is a small quantity of steel yet to be committed to contract and UK manufacturers will have every opportunity to bid for this.For the Type 26 Frigates, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 20 January 2016 to Questions 22739 and 22740 to the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr Farron). The steel suppliers for the Type 26 Frigates have not yet been selected.For the Tide Class Tankers, I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 January 2016 to Questions 23932 and 23934 to the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Mr. Farron). It is estimated that UK customisation work will require around 80 tonnes of steel, although design work is ongoing and no orders have yet been placed.For the Offshore Patrol Vessels currently under construction no UK steel manufacturer responded to the invitation to tender within the timeframe, but the contract to source the steel required was placed with a UK steel stockist. Around 20% of the overall requirement was sourced from UK steel mills and a further 10% from existing stock of unknown origin. The remainder was sourced from overseas suppliers, reflecting the need to ensure a competitive price and delivery at the required time and quality.



Type 26 Frigates
(Word Document, 17.51 KB)

Type 45 Destroyers

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 2 March 2015 to Question HL 5030, when he expects the upgrade work required on Type 45 destroyers to be completed; whether any such destroyers on which such work has not been completed have been deployed on any operation since the decision to proceed with the upgrade work was taken; and what assessment he has made of the effect of that work on the operational capability of the Royal Navy.

Mr Philip Dunne: All Royal Navy ships have a rolling programme of work which is being applied as operational commitments, planned maintenance and design solutions allow. With regard to the Type 45s, decisions on the optional Diesel Generator upgrade, announced in the Strategic Defence and Security Review 2015 is in the planning phase and the costs and timescales of the three leading options will be confirmed in the Assessment Phase.I am withholding information about the potential costs of the Diesel Generator upgrade as releasing such information at this stage would prejudice the commercial position of the MOD.Since the previous answer was given, Type 45 Destroyers have routinely deployed to the Gulf, with HMS Duncan undertaking the first successful nine month deployment of a Type 45 to that region in 2015. She was relieved by HMS Defender in December 2015, also on a nine month deployment, which is currently utilising the recognised world leading Anti-Air Warfare capabilities of Type 45 in providing direct support and protection to the US carrier operations against Daesh.

Type 45 Destroyers

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to the Answer of 2 March 2015 to Question HL5030, how much his Department on the feasibility phase for undertaking a diesel generator upgrade to the Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyers; when the feasibility phase for that work was concluded; when his Department made a decision on whether to proceed with the upgrade programme; how many options for undertaking the upgrade work were initially presented to his Department by BAE Systems; whether BAE Systems was asked to present further options to his Department, in addition to those initially presented; which option his Department chose to proceed with, and for what reasons; what estimate he has made of the cost of carrying out that work on each of the Royal Navy's Type 45 destroyers; on how many destroyers such upgrade work has commenced; and on how many such destroyers the upgrade work is complete.

Mr Philip Dunne: As referenced in the answer given on 2 March 2015 by the then Under Secretary of State for Defence, Lord Astor of Hever, to Question HL5030, the initial feasibility phase of upgrading the Type 45 diesel generators concluded in March 2015. Following this, further feasibility studies were completed in November 2015 at a cost of £4.7million. A range of technical options and a variety of delivery models are currently being explored with competing industrial partners and when the way forward has been determined, will be subject to the Departments formal approvals process. This approval will constitute a decision to proceed.BAE systems initially presented a range of options. The MOD was satisfied with the range of choices presented and has since selected the three leading options to be taken forward into the Assessment Phase.

HM Treasury

Public Sector: Redundancy Pay

Kevin Brennan: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has carried out benchmarking of the public sector exit payment cap against comparable private sector roles.

Kevin Brennan: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether his Department has made an assessment of the number of workers who would be affected if the exit payments cap for public sector workers was set at any other amount than £95,000.

Greg Hands: At the 2015 Spending Review the Government announced it will consult on further cross public sector action on exit payment terms. This consultation will provide a good opportunity to collect further information on the trends in the level of exit payments between the private and public sector. Exit payment terms vary significantly across the private sector, and there will be examples of terms that match or even exceed those in the public sector. However, the Government has seen no evidence that redundancy terms such as employer-funded early retirement, which are widely available across the public sector and often cost employers tens, or even hundreds of thousands of pounds per person, are replicated to anything like the same extent in the private sector. The precise number of those affected by the public sector exit payment cap will depend on the number and type of exits in coming years. However, as the average cost of an exit in the public sector in recent years has been around £25,000 the vast majority of exits are below the level of the cap. For example, less than 2% of recent exits in local government were above the level of the cap.

Welfare Tax Credits: Lone Parents

Angela Crawley: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many lone parents have received letters from Concentrix since 1 January 2015 questioning their reported living arrangements and requesting proof that they are not cohabiting in order to assess their continued eligibility to receive tax credits.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) routinely carries out checks on tax credits claims to make sure people are receiving the right amount of money and identify fraudulent claims. Since November 2014, Concentrix has been carrying out routine tax credit checks on behalf of HMRC, in addition to the checks HMRC carry out themselves. There are more than 4 million tax credit claimants overall. From the number of claimants contacted by Concentrix, HMRC and Concentrix do not categorise data under the heading of lone parent cases.

Stock Market: China

Jim Shannon: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with his Chinese counterpart on developments in the stock market in that country.

Harriett Baldwin: The Chancellor, as well as other HM Treasury ministers and officials regularly meet with their international counterparts to discuss a range of issues, including economic developments in China. As the Chancellor said during his trip to China in September 2015, the UK should “support and encourage China on this journey of economic change… Both Britain and China also recognise the importance of rebalancing our economies. It’s another way we can partner each other on the journey ahead… As the home to the world’s global financial centre, Britain can support China’s important financial reforms”.

Companies: Taxation

Paul Flynn: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, which companies have had meetings with Ministers of his Department since May 2015 to discuss those companies' tax status.

Mr David Gauke: Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery. Details of ministerial and permanent secretary meetings with external organisations on departmental business are published on a quarterly basis and are available on Gov.uk.

Multinational Companies: Taxation

Patrick Grady: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with (a) Members of the European Parliament, (b) EU Commissioners and (c) EU finance ministers on making public the rules for country-by-country reporting of tax and profits by multinational companies.

Patrick Grady: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the merits of making public the rules for country-by-country reporting of tax and profits by multinational companies.

Mr David Gauke: The UK supports efforts to improve tax transparency. The UK initiated the international work on country-by-country reporting during its G8 Presidency in 2013, calling on the OECD to develop a template for country-by-country (CbC) reporting as part of the BEPS project.The UK was the first out of 44 to commit to implement the OECD model for CbC reporting with legislation in Finance Act 2015. We understand that the Commission is also undertaking an analysis of the various tax transparency requirements for multinationals as part of its public consultation, and we look forward to the outcomes of this work. The Government recognises the case for publishing country-by-country reports on a multilateral basis.

Google: Taxation

Seema Malhotra: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many staff at which grades were involved in the recent investigation into Google's tax arrangements.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) does not disclose details of its work on the affairs of particular taxpayers. HMRC’s Large Business directorate now deploys 2,600 staff – over 600 more than when it was formed in April 2014.

Welfare Tax Credits

Frank Field: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what the size was of Concentrix's backlog of tax credit claims in December 2015.

Mr David Gauke: I refer the right honourable gentleman to the answer I gave on 3 February [22572, 22658 &22668].

Revenue and Customs: ICT

Ian C. Lucas: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what Google operating systems are used by HM Revenue and Customs; and when use of those systems commenced.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) uses two Google operating systems. HMRC uses the Android Operating system in a small number of mobile phone handsets, equating to less than 4% of its mobile phone estate. This Operating System was first used in 2012 in a small number of handsets, before being rolled out more widely in 2014.  HMRC also uses the Google Chrome Operating System in our video conference units. The Department started using this operating system for its video conferencing facilities in March 2014.

Mortgages

Sue Hayman: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the effect of mineral rights on mortgage lending.

Harriett Baldwin: The Government has made no assessment of the effect of mineral rights on mortgage lending.

Tax Collection

Ian C. Lucas: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions (a) HM Revenue and Customs and (b) other parts of the Government have had with Google on systems for collection of tax in the UK.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs have had no discussions with Google on systems for collection of tax in the UK. The Department does not hold information on whether other parts of Government have had discussions with Google.

Clearsprings Group

Stephen Doughty: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether (a) Clearsprings (Management) Ltd and (b) Clearsprings (Ready Homes) Ltd are under investigation by HM Revenue and Customs.

Mr David Gauke: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is legally prohibited from discussing the tax affairs of identifiable businesses. Section 18 of the Commissioners for Revenue & Customs Act 2005 imposes a duty of confidentiality upon officers of HMRC which means they are unable to disclose information which relates to functions of HMRC. This includes any specific action taken in response to information provided.

Business: Taxation

Seema Malhotra: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many prosecutions have arisen from investigations undertaken by HM Revenue and Customs Large Business Service in each of the last three years; and what the (a) category of taxes involved in and (b) result was of each such prosecution.

Mr David Gauke: Criminal investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) is part of a number of compliance interventions. Criminal investigation and prosecution act as a deterrent and support wider and more cost effective compliance interventions. HMRC takes cases to court when litigation is necessary. Since April 2013, HMRC has won 80%. Over £1.37 billion tax was protected by litigation against large business avoidance in that period.

Flood Control

Roger Mullin: To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the Barnett Formula applies to government funding of emergency flood relief.

Greg Hands: The government is investing nearly £200 million to help communities recover from Storm Desmond and Storm Eva. The Barnett Formula has been applied to this funding in the normal way.

Church Commissioners

Church of England: Community Relations

Karl McCartney: To ask the right hon. Member for Meriden, representing the Church Commissioners, what steps the Church of England is taking to ensure that its buildings are open for wider community use.

Mrs Caroline Spelman: The Church of England’s Cathedral and Church Buildings Division developed the open and sustainable churches initiative five years ago, and now 80% of churches provide a function beyond purely worship, with 54% of Anglican parishes running at least one organised activity to address social or community need. Churches are being used as citizen’s advice bureau, post offices, shops, night shelters and food banks. Two recent examples of local projects where the Church has opening its buildings for the wider community in the Lincoln Diocese include:St Peter & Paul Church, Algarkirk has been successful in getting through the first stage of HLF funding for a project to host a local heritage center, explaining the history of the area including an oral history project and fascinating details about this Grade I medieval church. The Parish Church has a collection of Victorian stained glass of national quality and furnishings by J.G. Grace who also furnished the Houses of Parliament.All Saints Church, Winterton is a Grade 1 Medieval church which has been restored with new community facilities installed to make it more accessible with the help of HLF and other grants.

Department for Energy and Climate Change

Nuclear Power: Disclosure of Information

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will list by title the documents requested and not released under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 relating to (a) nuclear power and (b) Hinkley Point C nuclear power plant since May 2010.

Andrea Leadsom: The information requested is not held centrally and can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Sellafield: Procurement

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the Government target is for the procurement of goods and services from the local Sellafield Ltd supply chain; how this target is monitored and enforced; and whether there are sanctions that would apply were this target not to be met.

Andrea Leadsom: Holding answer received on 02 February 2016



Sellafield is considered a ‘Contracting Authority’ under the EU Procurement Directives and as such they have to apply the Public Procurement Regulations in all their procurements, ensuring fair, equitable and transparent treatment for all suppliers whether local or not. The NDA have required Sellafield to consider SMEs, socio economic and the UK Growth agenda within their procurement strategies, which in turn should support smaller local suppliers.The SME target for the NDA Estate as a whole has been agreed with Government as 31% by 2020 and it is expected that each Site Licence Company (SLC), including Sellafield contribute to that target. The target is made up of both direct (SLC spend) and indirect (major supplier) spend. The target is broken up over the next financial years as follows:15/16 21.5 – 23%16/17 23.5 – 25%17/18 25.5 – 29%18/19 29.0 – 31%The NDA monitors the target with Sellafield reporting their direct spend with SMEs and NDA collect the data centrally from the major suppliers within the Estate. In turn, SME target is monitored and supported centrally by a range of systems including meetings with Lord Bourne, the DECC SME Minister, and various Cabinet Office meetings where NDA is an active participant. The NDA Executive and its Board are also updated regularly on performance against the SME target as well as wider discussions across the Estate. The NDA 2016-2019 Business Plan (currently out for consultation, www.nda.gov.uk) details the SME targets for each SLC for 2016, with the expectation that this support continues during the life of the Plan.

Sellafield: Procurement

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what assistance the Government has made available to local supply chain companies not able to participate in the Sellafield Ltd goods and services procurement process.

Andrea Leadsom: Holding answer received on 02 February 2016



Local businesses are able to participate in the Sellafield Ltd goods and services procurement process. As well as engaging directly with the local supply chain, NDA and Sellafield Ltd enable the development of working relationships and commercial arrangements between local businesses and Tier 2 suppliers.In 2014/15 of Sellafield’s total direct spend with SME’s, one-third was with Cumbrian-based suppliers. Of the remaining two-thirds, half was with one UK supplier, with the remaining half spread across SME’s across the UK. The NDA has a well-established SME engagement programme available at (http://www.nda.gov.uk/contracts-and-competition/) which Sellafield support. This includes regional and National SME steering groups – with a specific Cumbrian group being one of the regions, various guides and publications, promoting SME friendly procurements, a SME mentoring scheme and annual national NDA estate supply chain event with particular focus on SMEs. Companies local to Sellafield are engaged in these activities.Furthermore, in recent years business support has been provided to West Cumbrian businesses through schemes delivered by Britain’s Energy Coast and financed from a combination of NDA & Sellafield Ltd socio-economic budgets. This has amounted to approximately £500K per annum supporting local schemes such as the Energy Opportunities Supply Chain Project, Linkstart, and Ways Into Successful Enterprise. NDA provided match funding of £1m to the BEC delivered Regional Growth Fund 2 for West Cumbria, and both Sellafield Ltd and NDA have previously financially supported the Innovus scheme which aims to support businesses in the development of new products through the various Technology Readiness Levels.

Sellafield: Procurement

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what proportion of goods and services has been procured from (a) companies in the local supply chain and (b) small and medium-sized enterprises by Sellafield Ltd in each of the last six years.

Andrea Leadsom: Holding answer received on 02 February 2016



The department does not hold this information as it is the responsibility of the NDA.

Sellafield: Finance

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the annual budget of Sellafield was in each year since 2010.

Andrea Leadsom: Holding answer received on 02 February 2016



The actual expenditure at Sellafield in each year since 2010 in £m is as follows: Year£m2009-101,4402010-111,5722011-121,6052012-131,6862013-141,7392014-151,822

Carbon Sequestration: Research

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what funding the Government has provided for carbon capture and storage research and development projects not based in the UK since 2010.

Andrea Leadsom: Under DECC’s £20m CCS Innovation Programme, Net Power LLC, a US company, was awarded a Research and Development grant of £7.5m to demonstrate a British invented low carbon power generation technology. Net Power worked with Goodwin Steel castings, an established UK manufacturer, to manufacture turbine casings for the project.Through the International Climate Fund (ICF) the Government has funded capacity building projects in a number of partner countries. In December 2012, the UK committed £60 million from the ICF to trust funds operated by the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank to support developing countries to develop both the technical and institutional knowledge necessary to enable the deployment of CCS technologies. The ICF finance is supporting CCS capacity building through pilot projects, with the aim of demonstrating the technology and reducing the cost of the technology application across the CCS chain.

Sellafield: Procurement

Mr Jamie Reed: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, how much was spent by Sellafield Ltd on supply chain services in each of the last six years; what proportion of that expenditure in each of those years was to SMEs; and what proportion of those services was provided from each region and constituent nation of the UK.

Andrea Leadsom: The department does not hold this information as it is the responsibility of the NDA.

Coal

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, pursuant to the Answer of 27 January 2016 to Question 23662, if she will make an assessment of the risk of coal sourced by owners of power stations in the UK coming from countries where safety and labour standards in mining are poor.

Andrea Leadsom: Decisions on where to source coal are a commercial matter for the owners of coal-fired power stations. Contracts for the purchase of coal are awarded to individual mining companies, not countries. The majority operators of power stations in the UK are members of BetterCoal, an industry-led initiative which is taking action to promote responsible coal mining and has established a set of ethical, social, and environmental principles which companies in the supply chain are expected to align with.

Coal Fired Power Stations: Germany

Mr David Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, if she will discuss with her German counterpart the steps the German government plans to take to ensure that it can meet its carbon reduction targets while expanding coal-fired power stations in that country.

Andrea Leadsom: Ministers and officials in the department regularly discuss a range of energy and climate change issues with our German counterparts.Emissions in the traded sector (including German energy sector) are capped under the EU Emissions Trading System (EU-ETS) which is set to decrease emissions within these sectors by 43% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.Germany has national targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to at least 40% below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80% to 95% below 1990 levels by 2050. In 2014, the German government published their Climate Action Programme with additional measures to achieve their 2020 target. Later this year, the German government is expected to adopt its national Climate Action Plan 2050 which will include interim targets for post 2020 period and next steps in light of the Paris Agreement.

Power Stations: Closures

David T. C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what estimate she has made of how much dispatchable electricity capacity will be lost in 2016 due to planned power station closures.

Andrea Leadsom: It is estimated that the total conventional capacity installed in 2016/17 will be 58.1 – 59.1GW[1]. This represents closures of around 0.5GW - 1.8GW[2] between 2015/16 and 2016/17 and reflects the July 2015 Future Energy Scenarios outlook.However, for 2016/17, National Grid have already secured 3.6GW of capacity within their Contingency Balancing Reserve, in which additional power stations are held to provide security in times of system stress. This extra capacity will help us to ensure we meet the GB 3 hour LOLE reliability standard and will be sufficient to maintain security of supply even in the toughest system conditions.In addition to the Contingency Balancing Reserve, from 2018, the Capacity Market will ensure that retiring plant can be replaced by new investment by providing additional secure investment for both existing and new electricity generators  [1] As presented in Ofgem’s Capacity Assessment 2015, including Nuclear.[2] Figures presented in this response are not de-rated to reflect expected availability at Winter peak.

Electricity

David T. C. Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what the total dispatchable electricity capacity was in January (a) 2013, (b) 2014, (c) 2015 and (d) 2016; and what estimate she has made of that capacity in January (i) 2017, (ii) 2018 and (iii) 2019.

Andrea Leadsom: Dispatchable electricity, as defined by National Grid, comprises of generation that can be switched on and off at relatively short notice. This does not include substantial capacity in the GB mix such as nuclear and wind generation.The attached table outlines both expected Pre-Winter dispatchable capacity[1], as per the relevant National Grid Winter Outlook publications and the 2015 Future Energy Scenarios Slow Progression projection of available capacity.Post-2015/16 figures represent the Slow Progression July 2015 outlook of generation background. We take energy security very seriously and monitor the commercial outlook of supply frequently alongside National Grid and Ofgem.The trend of declining conventional capacity has arisen due to margins in preceding years being unnecessarily large because of the recession. The drop off in capacity is a symptom of returning to the kinds of margins we were used to pre-recession and to reflect improvements in energy efficiency as well as increasing levels of renewable technologies coming on to the system.Our priority is to ensure that British families and business have access to secure affordable energy supplies that they can rely on. National Grid have a number of tools to ensure a secure supply of electricity including Contingency Balancing Reserve, in which additional power stations are held to provide security in times of system stress. This extra capacity will help us to ensure we meet the GB 3 hour LOLE reliability standard and will be sufficient to maintain security of supply even in the toughest system conditions.In addition to the Contingency Balancing Reserve, from 2018, the Capacity Market will ensure that retiring plant can be replaced by new investment by providing additional secure investment for both existing and new electricity generators   



Table providing capacity figures 
(Word Document, 14.39 KB)

Nuclear Power: Northern Ireland

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what discussions she has had with (a) bodies in the Northern Ireland Assembly and (b) the Northern Ireland Environment Agency on the future of nuclear power in Northern Ireland.

Andrea Leadsom: None of the eight sites listed in the Nuclear National Policy Statement as potentially suitable for new nuclear power stations in the UK is in Northern Ireland. Since the General Election I have had no discussions with bodies in the Northern Ireland Assembly or the Northern Ireland Environment Agency on the future of nuclear power in Northern Ireland.

Wind Power: Northern Ireland

Tom Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, what research her Department has conducted or commissioned on the effect of the early closure of the Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation to new onshore wind projects in Northern Ireland.

Andrea Leadsom: With certain limited exceptions, Energy Policy is devolved to Northern Ireland. Closure of the Northern Ireland Renewables Obligation is therefore a matter for the Northern Ireland Executive.

Cabinet Office

Civil Servants: Redundancy Pay

Kevin Brennan: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what (a) number and (b) proportion of civil servants will be affected by the Government's proposed exit payment cap.

Matthew Hancock: To remain the best in the world, the Civil Service needs to respond to both the challenges and opportunities of our times. The Civil Service continues to require new and different skills to respond to the fiscal environment, global competition and changes in technology, whilst at the same time delivering better services more efficiently: in short, doing more for less.The numbers of civil servants affected by the Government’s action to end six figure pay outs in the public sector will depend upon the terms applicable when the staff leave and which staff are exited.

Death

Norman Lamb: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the main causes of death are for (a) men and (b) women aged (i) five to 19 and (ii) 20 to 34 in England.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Letter to Member - Main Causes of Death
(PDF Document, 142.92 KB)

Senior Civil Servants: Greater London

Louise Haigh: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of people in the Senior Civil Service are based in London.

Matthew Hancock: 67% of the Senior Civil Service is based in London.

Prostate Cancer

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what the current rate of men diagnosed with prostate cancer is and what the change in that rate over the last (a) five and (b) 10 years.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Letter for Member - Prostate Cancer for Men
(PDF Document, 86.47 KB)

Cabinet Office: Sky

Maria Eagle: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what meetings (a) Ministers and (b) civil servants in his Department have had with (i) James Murdoch and (ii) representatives from Sky UK Limited in each year since 2012.

Matthew Hancock: Details of Ministers' meetings with external organisations, including senior media figures, are published routinely and can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ministers-transparency-publications on Gov.uk.

Polygamy

David T. C. Davies: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate his Department has made of the number of men in the UK who are in polygamous marriages.

Mr Rob Wilson: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the Authority to reply.



UKSA Letter to Member - Polygamous Marriages
(PDF Document, 210.17 KB)

Department of Health

Gastrointestinal System: Surgery

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people had gastrointestinal operations in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison: The information is not available in the form requested.For England, a count of finished admission episodes (FAEs) with a primary or secondary procedure of gastrointestinal operation from 2010-11 to 2014-15 is below. YearFAEs2010-111,375,3432011-121,472,6212012-131,567,6152013-141,603,3652014-151,699,845Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, Health and Social Care Information CentreNote: An FAE is the first period of admitted patient care under one consultant within one healthcare provider. Admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many people of each age group and gender were diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome in each of the last five years.

Jane Ellison: Data relating to the total number of people diagnosed with irritable bowel syndrome (IBD) in each of the last five years is not collected. The two main forms of IBD are Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. Ulcerative colitis only affects the large intestine whereas Crohn's disease affects the whole of the digestive system. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance indicates that ulcerative colitis has an incidence in the United Kingdom of approximately 10 per 100,000 people annually, and a prevalence of approximately 240 per 100,000. This amounts to around 146,000 people in the UK with a diagnosis of ulcerative colitis. In addition to this, there are currently at least 115,000 people in the UK with Crohn's disease.

Drugs: Misuse

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to reduce the incidence of substance addiction in people aged over 50.

Jane Ellison: Local authorities are responsible for commissioning effective drug and alcohol prevention and treatment services based on an assessment of local need. Public Health England (PHE) supports local authorities in this work, by providing bespoke data, value for money tools, topical briefings, and advice on good practice to help local authorities meet the needs of their local population, including older people. PHE is engaged in a series of work programmes which aim to reduce the incidence of substance addiction and help provide support to older people; an alcohol misuse screening question has been part of the national NHS Health Check since 2013. The Health Check programme is offered to three million 40-74 year olds per year. An independent expert group updating the United Kingdom drug misuse clinical guidelines, Drug Misuse and Dependence: UK Guidelines on Clinical Management[1] is considering specific advice for clinicians on managing and addressing substance addiction in older people.  [1] http://www.nta.nhs.uk/uploads/clinical_guidelines_2007.pdf

Visual Impairment: Medical Treatments

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he expects that retinal implant chips will be available through the NHS to treat blindness.

Alistair Burt: It is for local National Health Service commissioners to make decisions on whether to fund new treatments, taking into account the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidance, available evidence and individual patient’s clinical circumstances. NICE issued interventional procedures guidance on the insertion of a subretinal prosthesis system for retinitis pigmentosa in December 2015. NICE’s recommendation was that this procedure should only be used in the context of research, due to the limited evidence being available on its safety and efficacy.

Prostate Cancer

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to work with charities and campaigners on raising awareness and improving prevention of prostate cancer.

Jane Ellison: Public Health England (PHE) ran a local pilot campaign in October – November 2014, specifically targeting prostate cancer within Black African-Caribbean men, because of their significantly increased risk of developing prostate cancer. The campaign was delivered in partnership with Prostate Cancer UK and was designed to support their awareness raising activity. The campaign ran in six London boroughs – Hackney, Haringey, Newham, Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham – and was delivered mainly through face to face activity, supported by posters in key outdoor locations and in salons and a programme of targeted public relations. PHE will also shortly be re-running the national campaign on “Blood in Pee. Although primarily aimed at bladder and kidney cancer, blood in the urine can also be a sign of prostate cancer.

NHS: Private Sector

Cat Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many companies which comprised a single person were paid for services by NHS trusts in 2014-15.

George Freeman: The information is not held centrally by the Department.

Hepatitis

Mr Virendra Sharma: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2016 to Question 22716, if he will commission a survey on the effects of delays in the publication of the hepatitis C framework on (a) all people and (b) members of the South Asian population in England with hepatitis C.

Jane Ellison: No such survey has been commissioned. Public Health England and NHS England continue to work together to improve outcomes for people with hepatitis C.

NHS: Drugs

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how Academic Health Science Networks are able to contribute to the Accelerated Access Review.

George Freeman: The Academic Health Science Networks have already contributed to the Accelerated Access Review via the recent engagement exercise held by the review team. Their contribution has been incorporated in the development of the review recommendations.

NHS: Staff

Kate Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the implications are for his policies on encouraging the recruitment and development of BAME and women at senior staffing levels in the NHS of the findings of the Interim Report in the Review of Operational Productivity in NHS providers, undertaken by Lord Carter of Coles and published in June 2015.

George Freeman: The interim report ‘Review of Operational Productivity in NHS providers’ does not make recommendations on recruitment and development and should have no impact on policies relating to the recruitment and development of Black Asian and Minority Ethnic Groups and women at senior staffing levels in the National Health Service.

Cancer: Drugs

Nic Dakin: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the recommendations from the Accelerated Access Review interim report and the Cancer Drugs Fund consultation are not contradictory.

George Freeman: The Accelerated Access Review's independent chair, Sir Hugh Taylor, is considering a range of options for accelerating patient access to innovative products, as set out in the interim report. The review team is working closely with NHS England to ensure that the review recommendations are aligned with emerging thinking on the Cancer Drugs Fund.

NHS: Drugs

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what lessons have been learned from the implementation of recommendations contained in NHS England's report, entitled Innovation, Health and Wealth, published in December 2011; and how his Department is implementing those lessons in the Accelerated Access Review.

George Freeman: Innovation Health and Wealth rightly emphasised how crucial innovation is to our better care for patients and improving the health and care system. The Accelerated Access Review was established to build on this, recognising the fundamental contribution that the United Kingdom’s world class medical innovators make to our economy. The evaluation of the Innovation, Health and Wealth has formed part of the review evidence base. The independent Accelerated Access Review will report at the end of April with recommendations on how to increase the uptake of innovation in the National Health Service.

Medical Records: Databases

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what targets his Department has for the transfer of documents between GP surgeries when a patient moves to a different area.

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the average time taken for the transfer of documents between GP surgeries when a patient move to a different health area was in each of the last five years.

Alistair Burt: The Department does not collect information on the time taken to transfer documents between general practitioner (GP) surgeries. The GP contract requires GP practices to use the electronic facility known as “GP2GP” for the safe and effective transfer of any computerised patient records where they have access to this system. As at end September 2015, 97.2% of GP practices were using GP2GP. 5,859,890 patient electronic health records have been transferred by GP2GP to the patient’s new GP since 2007.

Medical Records: Databases

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions he has had with the devolved administrations in (a) Wales, (b) Scotland and (c) Northern Ireland on the speed and efficiency of transfer of patient records between administrations.

Alistair Burt: We do not have any record of discussions that have taken place between the Secretary of State for Health and the devolved administrations on the speed and efficiency of transfer of patient records between administrations. However, we are aware that Wales has been conducting a pilot of the GP2GP system, which enables patient records to be electronically transferred between one practice and another, and Scotland has also been rolling out the system. In the future this should enable faster, more effective transfer of patient records between administrations. Additionally, the Summary Care Record Programme in England has a four nations forum with Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland that focuses on best practice and lessons learned from the respective national record sharing solutions.

Medical Records: Databases

Mr David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP surgeries have adopted the use of the GP2GP system developed by the Health and Social Care Information Centre.

George Freeman: 7,547 general practitioner practices in England were live with the GP2GP system at the end of November 2015; this equates to 97.7% of all GP2GP eligible practices within England.

NHS: Drugs

Chris Green: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to NHS's consultation, Specialised services policy and specifications, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the procedure in use by NHS England to develop commissioning policies for specialised medicines.

George Freeman: NHS England is continuing to refine its standard operating procedure for developing commissioning policies for specialised medicines, taking into account professional and stakeholder feedback. For example, during 2015/16 NHS England introduced a more explicit requirement for external review of the available evidence of clinical and cost effectiveness, and a parallel clinical assurance process to ensure new policies appropriately reflect the available evidence. These evidence reviews are now made available alongside draft policy proposals as part of NHS England’s public consultation process. NHS England has also commissioned an external review of its current policy development process and will formally consider lessons learned as it refines the process to be adopted in support of the 2016/17 work programme.

NHS: Innovation

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take in response to the report it commissioned entitled Evaluating the role and contribution of innovation to health and wealth in the UK, published in January 2016; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman: The Department is funding RAND Europe and the University of Manchester to conduct a formative and summative evaluation of Innovation, Health and Wealth (IHW). The project is expected to complete in 2017 and the report on the first stage of the evaluation, including an assessment of progress towards actions within Theme 8: High Impact Innovations, can be found on the RAND Europe website: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1143.html This report represents the first phase of a three year evaluation aimed at mapping progress towards the IHW strategy and its component actions. The Department will be considering the outputs of the evaluation as they emerge over the next three years including as part of the evidence feeding into the Accelerated Access Review.

NHS: Innovation

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will make an assessment of the effectiveness of the spread of the six highest impact innovations identified in NHS England's report, entitled Innovation, Health and Wealth, published in December 2011; and if he will make a statement.

George Freeman: The Department is funding RAND Europe and the University of Manchester to conduct a formative and summative evaluation of Innovation, Health and Wealth (IHW). The report on the first stage of the evaluation, including an assessment of progress towards actions within Theme 8: High Impact Innovations, can be found on the RAND Europe website: http://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1143.html Since the publication of Creating Change: Innovation, Health and Wealth one year on in 2012, there has been a great deal of progress made in many of the IHW work streams. Much of this has been incorporated into NHS England’s Innovation Into Action: Supporting delivery of the NHS Five Year Funding View, published in September 2015 and can be found at: www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/nhs-inovation-into-action.pdf The Accelerated Access Review is looking at this question of how the National Health Service adopts high impact innovations, and we expect to receive the final report in April.

Soft Drinks

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions (a) Ministers, (b) Special Advisers and (c) senior officials in his Department have had with representatives of (i) the Food and Drink Federation, (ii) Coca-Cola, (iii) PepsiCo and (iv) the British Soft Drinks Association in each of the last 18 months; and what the subject was of each such meeting.

Jane Ellison: Details of all Ministerial and Special Adviser meetings with external stakeholders are published quarterly in arrears on the GOV.UK website. Information for 2014 is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-external-meetings-2014 The latest publications up to September 2015 are available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ministerial-gifts-hospitality-travel-and-external-meetings-2015 Information for October to December 2015 will be published at the end of March. Departmental officials have ongoing discussions with representatives from companies producing food and drink. Discussions have included actions and commitments being made by industry to improve the nation’s diet, successes achieved and challenges to make further substantial progress.

Hospitals: Infectious Diseases

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many patients have died due to a hospital acquired infection in primary care trusts in (a) 2015, (b) 2014, (c) 2013, (d) 2012 and (e) 2011.

Ben Gummer: The Health and Social Care Information Centre has advised the general practitioner (GP) Extraction System is not currently flowing data from GP practices and primary care, so data from a community setting is not available.

Breast Cancer

Mr Gregory Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what discussions the Breast Cancer Clinical Reference Group has had with organisations in the devolved administrations on the sharing of best practice.

Jane Ellison: The Breast Cancer Clinical Reference Group (CRG) was recently set up, by the NHS England National Clinical Director for Cancer, to provide whole pathway consensus clinical advice to commissioners in England. Although the CRG has no formal remit to liaise with the devolved administrations, we recognise the benefit of sharing best practice throughout the United Kingdom and the important role this has in improving services.

Prostate Cancer

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment his Department has made of (a) how many cases of prostate cancer could be identified earlier by a national prostate cancer screening programme and (b) what effect such a programme would have on survival rates.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential cost to the NHS of introducing a national prostate cancer screening programme.

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what plans the Government has to introduce a prostate cancer screening programme.

Jane Ellison: The UK National Screening Committee (UK NSC) recently examined and consulted upon the international peer reviewed evidence regarding prostate cancer screening. The UK NSC recommended against a systematic population screening programme for prostate cancer. This is because the prostate-specific antigen (PSA) is not an accurate enough test for prostate cancer. Additionally, the UK NSC identified that there is still an incomplete understanding of which prostate cancers are aggressive and require treatment and which are safe to actively monitor. There is a significant amount of research activity underway, but currently the evidence suggests that a systematic screening programme would do more harm than good.

Prostate Cancer

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to (a) raise awareness and (b) prevent the prevalence of prostate cancer.

Jane Ellison: Public Health England (PHE) ran a local pilot campaign from 20 October to 16 November 2014, specifically targeting prostate cancer within Black African-Caribbean men, because of their significantly increased risk of developing prostate cancer. The campaign was delivered in partnership with Prostate Cancer UK and was designed to support their awareness raising activity. The campaign ran in six London boroughs – Hackney, Haringey, Newham, Southwark, Lambeth and Lewisham – and was delivered mainly through face to face activity, supported by posters in key outdoor locations and in salons and a programme of targeted public relations. The campaign was delivered in partnership with Prostate Cancer UK and was designed to support their awareness raising activity. PHE will shortly be re-running the national campaign on “Blood in Pee”. Although primarily aimed at bladder and kidney cancer, blood in the urine can also be a sign of prostate cancer.

General Practitioners

Sir Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of patients in England book their GP appointments online.

George Freeman: The latest figures available for November 2015 show 7.97 million patients are registered to enable them to book and cancel appointments online. This represents 13.9% of the general practitioner registered population.

Sepsis: Children

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many cases of sepsis there were in children and infants under five years of age in each of the last five years.

Ben Gummer: The figures provided in the table refer only to hospital admissions and are not a count of patients as a patient may have had more than one episode of care within the same year. Data for finished discharge episodes with a primary or secondary diagnosis of sepsis for patients aged 0 to 4 years, in each year from 2010-11 to 2014-15. Information is not held centrally on patients diagnosed in a primary care setting.  2010-112011-122012-132013-142014-15Finished discharged episodes18,41720,08022,91523,84026,725Source: Hospital Episode Statistics, Health and Social Care Information Centre Notes:Finished Discharge Episode - A discharge episode is the last episode during a hospital stay (a spell), where the patient is discharged from the hospital or transferred to another hospital. Discharges do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one discharge from hospital within the period.Number of episodes in which the patient had a primary or secondary diagnosis - The number of episodes where this diagnosis was recorded in any of the 20 (14 from 2002-03 to 2006-07 and 7 prior to 2002-03) primary and secondary diagnosis fields in a Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) record. Each episode is only counted once, even if the diagnosis is recorded in more than one diagnosis field of the record.ICD-10 codes for Sepsis – “A02.1 Salmonella sepsis, A20.7 Septicaemic plague, A21.7 Generalized tularaemia, A22.7 Anthrax sepsis, A26.7 Erysipelothrix sepsis, A28.0 Pasteurellosis, A28.2 Extraintestinal yersiniosis, A32.7 Listerial sepsis, A39.2 Acute meningococcaemia, A39.3 Chronic meningococcaemia, A39.4 Meningococcaemia, unspecified, A40.- Streptococcal sepsis, A41.- Other sepsis, A42.7 Actinomycotic sepsis, B37.7 Candidal sepsis, O85.X Puerperal sepsis, P36.- Bacterial sepsis of newborn,  The following pair of codes is a dagger/asterisk code pair (D and A) which must be present together: A39.1 Waterhouse-Friderichsen syndrome, E35.1 Disorders of adrenal glands in diseases classified elsewhere.

Sepsis

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department plans to take to ensure opportunities for diagnosis and intervention in sepsis are detected.

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his Department plans to do to ensure that healthcare staff and GPs are adequately trained to recognise the symptoms of sepsis.

Ben Gummer: NHS England is undertaking a number of steps to improve diagnosis and treatment of sepsis, which have been coordinated through a cross-system programme board run by NHS England. In April 2015 NHS England introduced a new national Commissioning for Quality and Innovation measure (financial incentive) to incentivise hospitals accepting emergency admissions to screen eligible patients for sepsis when they arrive, and to administer intravenous antibiotics within one hour for patients with severe sepsis or septic shock. Additionally NHS England has made available a voluntary audit tool for general practitioners (GPs) enabling them to assess their care of children with a fever under five years old against the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guidelines, which can be a pre-cursor to sepsis. Primary care IT suppliers have provided data entry templates for the tool which prompts GPs to enter the appropriate observations thereby improving the quality of the patient care record, as well as promoting the use of the NICE guidance. NICE is currently consulting on a new Sepsis Clinical Guideline that will be published this year, which will make recommendations about the assessment, diagnosis and initial management of patients with sepsis. The Government has mandated Health Education England (HEE) to provide national leadership on education, training and workforce development in the National Health Service in England. It is the responsibility of the professional regulators to set the standards and outcomes for education and training and approve training curricular to ensure newly qualified healthcare professionals are equipped with the knowledge, skills and attitudes to provide high quality patient care. HEE will work with bodies that set curricula such as the General Medical Council and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) to seek to ensure training meets the needs of patients. HEE is currently developing an awareness video that will target primary care staff on recognising sepsis in children. A separate piece of work involving the RCGP is focusing on an e-learning package on sepsis in primary care, to ensure that the primary care workforce is ably equipped to deal with sepsis in the general population, including children. HEE is currently undertaking a scoping exercise on training available for health professionals to recognise and manage sepsis in all patient groups. This survey scoped HEE local offices, NHS organisations, Academic Health Science Network, Ambulance Trusts and Royal Colleges on the resources currently available, which are being reviewed, and recommendations will be made in March 2016.

Mental Health Services: Children and Young People

Norman Lamb: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the vacancy rates are in (a) child psychiatry, (b) child psychology and (c) mental health nursing for child and adolescent mental health services in each (i) region and (ii) clinical commissioning group in each of the last 10 years.

Ben Gummer: The vacancy rates in child psychiatry, child psychology and mental health nursing for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services are not collected.

Sepsis

Justin Madders: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the implications for his policies are of the findings of the 2015 report from the National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death, Sepsis: Just Say Sepsis on delayed diagnosis.

Ben Gummer: In January 2015, we announced a package of measures to focus attention on sepsis and raise the awareness of this potentially devastating condition amongst professionals and the public. These included new incentives to encourage hospitals to recognise sepsis in adults and children, and to provide timely treatment with intravenous antibiotics within 60 minutes of a diagnosis of severe sepsis. The National Confidential Enquiry into Patient Outcome and Death report outlined many important findings about awareness and treatment of sepsis both in primary care and hospital settings, and many of these findings are being addressed through the work of the NHS England Cross-system Sepsis Programme Board. The Board published its report, Improving Outcome for Patients with Sepsis, A Cross-System Action Plan, in December 2015. This sets out the actions being be taken forward to (a) Prevent avoidable cases of sepsis; (b) Increase awareness of sepsis amongst professionals and the public; (c) Improve the identification and treatment of sepsis across the whole patient pathway; (d) Improve consistency of standards and reporting; and (e) Underpin all actions with the principles of appropriate antibiotic use and antimicrobial stewardship. A copy of the report can found at: https://www.england.nhs.uk/ourwork/part-rel/sepsis/

Electronic Cigarettes

Helen Goodman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, which vaping or e-cigarette products the NHS can prescribe to help smokers quit; and what the process was for selecting those products.

Jane Ellison: Only e-cigarettes that have been granted a marketing authorisation by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) can be prescribed by the National Health Service. By law, before a medicine can be placed on the market, it must be given a marketing authorisation (product licence) by a medicines regulator. The United Kingdom regulator is the MHRA. A specially trained panel of medicines assessors reviews all the available evidence arising out of the pre-clinical research and clinical trials. Manufacturers may also be asked to supply additional information. The MHRA also inspects the factory where the medicine is to be made, to make sure that supplies will be of a uniformly and consistently high standard. To date one e-cigarette, e-Voke (10and 15mg electronic inhalers) has been granted a marketing authorisation by the MHRA. It is, however, not yet commercially available on the UK market to prescribe. It is a commercial decision whether to apply to a medicines regulator for a marketing authorisation.

General Practitioners: Greater London

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many GP surgeries (a) closed, (b) opened and (c) merged in (i) London, (ii) each London borough and (iii) each Trust area in London in each year since 2010.

Alistair Burt: The information is not held in the format requested.

Mental Health: Research

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what proportion of grants awarded by the National Institute for Health Research have been in connection with mental health in the current year; and what the size of those grants has been.

George Freeman: From April 2015 to January 2016, there have been 139 contracted awards made by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) through research programmes and research training and career development schemes with a total value of £83.6 million. Of these awards, 21 (15.1%) are in mental health with a total value apportioned to mental health of £13.6 million (16.2%). The value of awards relevant to more than one health category is apportioned to up to three categories. Awards subject to contract are excluded. Awards relevant to mental health are shown in the following table. NIHR contracted awards in mental health, April 2015 – January 2016TitleTotal cost £Total cost apportioned to mental health £Research into antipsychotic discontinuation and reduction2,464,5132,464,513Personalised assessment and intervention packages for children with conduct problems in child mental health services2,395,9652,395,965Integrated therapist and online CBT for depression in primary care2,233,8012,233,801Overcoming persecutory delusions1,849,1331,849,133CBT for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in youth exposed to multiple traumatic stressors760,673760,673Identifying appropriate symbol communication aids for children who are non-speaking: enhancing clinical decision making686,112343,056Feasibility study of an intervention aimed at improving the sexual health of people with severe mental illness606,494202,165Enhancing the credibility, usefulness and relevance of patient experience data in services for people with long-term physical and mental health conditions using digital data capture and improved analysis of narrative data516,997258,499Multi-centre external pilot randomised controlled trial to decrease risky substance use (drugs and alcohol) and improve mental health and well-being of Looked After Children aged 12 -20 years501,794501,794Domestic violence among serving and ex-serving UK military personnel: prevalence, risk factors, help-seeking behaviour and the response of services447,400447,400E-support for families and friends of individuals affected by psychosis418,944418,944Evaluating the effects of Community Treatment Orders in England using the Mental Health Minimum Dataset391,641391,641Examining the role of parent-adolescent interactions in the treatment of adolescents with depression304,682304,682Increasing the quality of health service support for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities who display behaviour problems276,692276,692Young people who offend: understanding and meeting health and wellbeing needs using experience based co-design235,131235,131The involvement of family and friends in inpatient mental health care: what do patients want?205,381205,381Development of a computerised parenting intervention for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder99,92099,920Improving practice and outcomes of involuntary hospital admissions in England99,38299,382Improving the mental health treatment of young people with epilepsy96,39448,197Developing and evaluating a diabetes self-management education intervention for people with severe mental illness89,75444,877Intensive case management for severe mental illness5,0005,000TOTAL14,685,80313,586,846 The NIHR also funds research infrastructure, systems and support services across all health areas including mental health.

Mental Illness: Employment

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what advice his Department gives to employers on supporting employees who return to work after a period of mental illness.

Alistair Burt: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published guidance on workplace health management practices. This guidance provides evidence based recommendations on improving the health and wellbeing of employees, and can support organisations to develop effective return to work policies. The guidance is complemented by earlier guidance published by NICE on promoting mental wellbeing at work. Additionally, guidance on the NHS Choices website provides advice for line managers on supporting employees with long-term medical conditions, including those with mental health conditions. This can be found at the following link: http://www.nhs.uk/Livewell/workplacehealth/Documents/ChronicConds_LineManagers_Factsheet_A4.pdf Public Health England is working with Business in the Community on a new resource for businesses focused specifically on addressing mental health issues building on the existing best practice and considering the transferable learning between business sectors and businesses of different sizes.

Vitamin B12

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps he is taking to raise awareness of B12 vitamin deficiency.

Jane Ellison: The Department raises awareness of B12 vitamin deficiency through the NHS Choices website. It provides a comprehensive web-based health information service and provides advice on areas such as health and diet, including a section on vitamin B12. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidance states that information about awareness, diagnosis and treatment of vitamin B12 deficiency should also be provided by public health care professionals.

Mental Health Services

Luciana Berger: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 28 January 2016 to Question 23898, what (a) estimate he has made and (b) target he has set for the number of the liaison psychiatry services in A&E departments which will meet (i) Core, (ii) Core 24, (iii) Enhanced 24 and (iv) Comprehensive standard as set out by the NHS South West Strategic Clinical Network by 2020.

Alistair Burt: The latest available data, based on the 2nd annual national survey of liaison psychiatry carried out by the University of Plymouth on behalf of NHS England in April 2015, provides the following estimates of service grading in line with NHS South West Strategic Clinical Network’s service model specification: Service modelNumber of acute hospitalsNone11Sub-core134Core21Core 2410Enhanced 24/Comprehensive3The Government announced a £247 million investment over four years to 2020/21 to expand provision of liaison mental health in acute hospital settings. NHS England estimates that this will bring at least 50% of acute hospitals to the ‘Core 24’ service grading.

NHS: Private Finance Initiative

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will publish the recorded interest rates of all PFI-financed projects in operation and commissioned by the NHS.

Alistair Burt: The great majority of funding for Private Finance Initiative (PFI) schemes (usually 90%) comes in the form of two types of senior debt – a loan from a bank or a bond raised in the capital markets. The remaining cost of the project (10%) is paid in as equity share capital or equity-like loans (subordinated debt) from specialist investors. This enables projects to be financed where there are risks which the bank lenders are unwilling to bear (akin to a deposit when arranging a mortgage). Given these risks, the costs of raising this equity finance are higher. The combination of these two types of finance and therefore the overall cost of raising all the finance for the project can then be ascribed an annual percentage rate which is known as the Weighted Average Cost of Capital (WACC) or more commonly the Project Internal Rate of Return (Project IRR). The pre and post-tax nominal and real IRRs for equity and the WACC for all NHS hospital PFI schemes which had reached financial close from 1997 (the first) to 2009 were published as part of the Department’s evidence to the House of Commons Health Select Committee (HSC) Public Expenditure Inquiry 2009. The link is below and the information can be found at Tables 12A and 12B: http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200910/cmselect/cmhealth/269/269i.pdf Another four hospital PFI schemes have reached financial close since 2009. The information related to them is not held in the form requested; to identify and collate it would incur disproportionate cost.

Barts Health NHS Trust: Private Finance Initiative

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what meetings (a) he or (b) others in his Department had with Innisfree Ltd in which public finance initiative funding for Barts Health NHS Trust was discussed in the last five years.

Alistair Burt: Two officials from the Department met Innisfree on one occasion in the last five years, in 2012, to discuss the Private Finance Initiative scheme for Barts Health NHS Trust.